Top Gun: Maverick Soars High With $124M Opening, Sets New Record For Tom Cruise

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Top Gun: Maverick opened on the Memorial Day weekend with a record-breaking $124 million. This makes the movie the highest-grossing opening for the megastar Tom Cruise. Not only did he receive a 6-minute standing ovation at the Cannes movie premiere this year, but was also honored with a 15-minute long montage of all his career achievements earlier that evening and finally, a very deserving Palme d’Or. Top Gun: Maverick comes 36 years after the original movie. But that never diminished the popularity of the movie and neither did it curb the demography of the moviegoers. According to reports, over 45% of the audience was 35 or younger. This stands as monumental proof of the impact that the original movie has had on generations to come.

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Palme d'Or
Palme d’Or

Top Gun: Maverick Accolades

The movie certainly has received worldwide critical praise and appreciation. With the visionary director Joseph Kosinski at its helm and Jerry Bruckheimer on deck, nothing short of a masterpiece could have been expected. The movie premiered at CinemaCon on April 28 and was released in theatres on 27th May 2022.

Top Gun: Maverick has thus far secured a global box office debut for $248 million and is headed toward a $151 million record high by the end of the four-day-long Memorial Day weekend.

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Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick is out in theatres now

Tom Cruise’s fame in filmography started with Top Gun and in his 40-year career, it has come a full circle. Top Gun: Maverick has now become the third movie to top the charts as one of the pandemic blockbusters. Spider-Man: No Way Home, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and The Batman are among the other chart-toppers.

The Making of Maverick 2022

According to Joseph Kosinski, the actor was not initially invested in the idea of a sequel to Top Gun. The original movie introduced us to young naval aviators taking to the skies as Maverick, Goose, and Iceman navigated the trials of friendship, teamwork, competition, and sacrifice.

In the second phase which comes 36 years later, we find the veteran Maverick still striving to touch the skies. Beyond that, the movie also touches upon Goose’s death and his son, Bradley Bradshaw, who has followed in his father’s footsteps.

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Brad Bradshaw
Bradley Bradshaw in Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

The script of the movie was kept close to the original in the sense that the director still wanted to deliver a sense of practicality to the film. The original movie became such a hit after the audience left the theatres thrilled with the buzz and adrenaline of feeling what it’s like to be in the cockpit of a fighter jet. In an era dominated by graphic imagery and visual effects to make a movie visually stunning, Kosinski relied on real stunts and no props to make his movie successful. Cruise flew a real F-19 fighter jet instead of being aided by CGI and that is one of the factors that set this film apart from all the rest.

Top Gun: Maverick is out in theatres now. Watch the trailer here.

Source: Variety

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Written by Diya Majumdar

Articles Published: 1488

With a degree in Literature from Miranda House, Diya Majumdar now has nearly 1500 published articles on FandomWire. Her passion and profession both include dissecting the world of cinema while being a liberally opinionated person with an overbearing love for Monet, Edvard Munch, and Van Gogh. Other skills include being the proud owner of an obsessive collection of Spotify playlists.