Top Gun: Maverick has reached unexpected heights at the box office. As of Sunday, June 26, the movie is officially the biggest box office earner of 2022 with over $1 billion in sales worldwide. This puts it past the previous frontrunner, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, and makes it the second-most successful film release since the COVID-19 pandemic hit.
Top Gun: Maverick reached the $1 billion threshold sometime this weekend, according to a report by Variety, after just 31 days in theaters. The only other movie to do so since March of 2020 was Spider-Man: No Way Home, which finished its theatrical run with $1.9 billion. There are several other impressive factors for Maverick, however — unlike Spider-Man, it reached these heights without playing in Russia or in China. Considering the size of those countries and their appetites for blockbuster films, that’s a major setback.
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Additionally, Maverick is the first movie ever to reach $1 billion starring Tom Cruise. Although Cruise is considered by many to be the quintessential movie star, before now his highest-earning movie was Mission: Impossible โ Fallout, which netted $791.1 million worldwide. Cruise’s style of action movies began to fall behind superhero franchises around the time of the first Avengers movie, but he’s clearly prepared for a comeback.
Doctor Strange 2 is not far behind right now with $943 million at the box office. However, many movies are seeing a precipitous drop-off lately as studios scramble to pivot from a theatrical release to a streaming release very quickly. Doctor Strange is no exception — it premiered on Disney+ on Wednesday, June 22, but it is still showing in some theaters around the world.
Sources at Paramount told Variety that part of Maverick‘s success was due to repeat customers. Their data reportedly shows that many people have seen the movie multiple times, perhaps bringing friends or family along to experience the thrill along with them. An estimated 16 percent of viewers have seen Maverick twice in theaters and 4 percent have seen it three times or more. The studio also chalks up the success to positive word-of-mouth reviews.
Top Gun: Maverick is still playing in theaters. There’s no word on when that theatrical run might end nor when it might be available to stream and on what platform. Looking ahead, there seem to be only a few blockbusters coming this year big enough to dethrone the movie.
