When Tom cruiseThe long-awaited sequel to Top Gun: Maverick, which opened over Memorial Day weekend, some thought might be Cruise’s biggest opening ever, grossing $100 million over the four-day holiday weekend. In fact, it opened with $160.5 million in those four days, becoming the highest-grossing Memorial Day release of all time. A month later, it’s now the first film of 2022 to gross $500 million at the domestic box office.
What happened after the opening was nothing short of astounding, because films that open this big on a bank holiday weekend tend to have significant dips in the weeks that follow. In its second weekend, the aviation action film made $90 million, down less than 29% as it hit nearly $300 million in just 11 days. That made it Cruise’s highest-grossing domestic release of all time.
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As of this weekend, Maverick has surpassed $500 million, becoming only the 17th film to surpass that milestone and only the second film since the pandemic, following Spider-Man: No Way Home. from 2021. That amount is also double the $234 million that Cruise’s biggest hit to date, War of the Worlds, has brought in total domestically.
More importantly, “Maverick” has withstood the release of high-profile blockbusters like “Jurassic World: Dominion” and Pixar’s “Lightyear,” and whizzed past $400 million while enjoying a virtually impossible $44 million fourth weekend reached with no sign of slowing down.
Additionally, “Maverick” has surpassed $900 million worldwide, putting it squarely with “Multiverse of Madness” (currently at $942.4 million worldwide) and putting it ahead of “The Batman” from earlier in the year ended with less than $800 million.
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The history of $500 million blockbusters is fascinating because before 2008 there was exactly one: JamesCameronis “Titanic”. Christopher nolan‘s The Dark Knight was the second film to break that mark in 2008, followed a year later by Cameron’s Avatar. Since 2015 alone, 11 other films have surpassed that mark, three of them Star Wars films, five of them Marvel superhero films, the first Jurassic World and then three Disney films including Pixar’s The Incredibles 2. 2018
While many films have grossed $300 million and even $400 million, it could be said that $500 million is the true measure of a phenomenon, which Top Gun: Maverick certainly is.