Another day, another record for Top Gun: Maverick. Having taken the box office by storm over the last few weeks, it was released digitally on August 23rd, allowing those that didn’t want to spend the time in the cinema to watch it in the comfort of their own home, or for a lot of people, to re-watch it in the comfort of their own homes.
With that choice for the consumer comes another benefit for the film, in that Top Gun: Maverick is the first film in cinema history to be top of both the box-office and home-streaming releases at the same time.
Top Gun: Maverick Flies Into the Record Books
Top Gun: Maverick was released back in late May, with the Tom Cruise starring film one of many delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Starring the aforementioned Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, and more, the sequel to the 80’s classic took the world by storm, breaking post-COVID records constantly and being a genuinely good film to boot.
When first announced, many fans were wondering about the need or justification for a sequel to a film nearly forty years old, but within a few minutes of sitting in the cinema and watching the film, there were no doubters left.
The move to base this story so heavily on the first one was a solid one, with Miles Teller playing the son of Tom Cruise’s long-serving pilot’s wingman and deceased friend, Goose, allowing the obvious and almost too easy dynamic between the two to go from begrudged and unwilling mentor to comrades.
Now having grossed over $701 million at the box office, it surpasses Black Panther, which during its long and successful run made just shades over $700 million. Whereas Black Panther had the Marvel machine and the films of the MCU before it to propel it to such lofty heights, Top Gun: Maverick had the heavy pressure of following up one of Cruise’s biggest films and one of the best action films in history. Whether it was equal, lesser, or surpassed the original is for the individual to decide, but it modernized the concept of fighter pilots in an age of increasingly more AI-dependent warfare.
With This Success Comes A Third… Maybe?
In today’s Hollywood, it’s usually a cakewalk to figure out what will and won’t get a sequel, or a trilogy in this case, and that’s usually with a glance at the box office takings. To say Top Gun: Maverick has done well at the box office is an understatement, with it now being the fifth highest-grossing domestic film of all time. It was also critically well received for the most part, but is there a story for another?
Cruise and Teller are supposedly on board if the story warrants it, and if the audience wants it, the latter seems an obvious yes. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t going away any time soon, and even as its box office is takings slow, its digital release earnings grow, so expect to hear plenty more about it yet.
Source: DiscussingFilm
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