'Top Gun: Maverick' Hits Gargantuan Box Office Milestone

Top Gun: Maverick reached a notable box office milestone, nearly cementing itself as the biggest movie of 2022 to this point. The Numbers reports that the Tom Cruise blockbuster raked in an estimated $8.25 million last Friday domestically, placing its total U.S. box office total at $499.47 million. That measurement means Top Gun: Maverick would hit $500 million at the domestic box office on Saturday, and would cross $1 billion worldwide around the same time.

Hitting half-a-billion dollars domestic is a huge benchmark, especially without totaling in the international box office figures. Only one other movie, 2021's Spider-Man: No Way Home, has hit that milestone domestically since the coronavirus pandemic hit the U.S. in 2020. Even counting worldwide box office, only a handful of movies have hit that benchmark. In addition to Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1,886,306,016), that list includes: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($942,559,132), Chang jin hu ($911,666,236), Ni Hao, Li Huan Ying ($841,674,419), The Batman ($768,662,330), No Time to Die ($760,839,661), F9: The Fast Saga ($721,077,945), Tang Ren Jie Tan An 3 ($699,084,069), Jurassic World: Dominion ($671,785,845), Chang Jin Hu Zhi Shui Men Qiao ($607,506,555), Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba – The Movie: Mugen Train ($504,334,511), and Venom: Let There be Carnage ($501,600,379), 

Compared to all those titles released since the start of the pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick ranks third with a worldwide box office total of $917,700,046. With the $500 million domestic benchmark crossing on Saturday, Paramount Pictures now sets its sights on two worldwide milestones for the film, which is a sequel to 1986's Top Gun (now streaming on Paramount+). First, Top Gun: Maverick is poised to pass Disney/Marvel's second Doctor Strange film, making it the No. 1 movie of 2022. From there, Paramount, Cruise and the rest of the team behind the military flick are striving to hit the monumental $1 billion benchmark at the international box office. Only 48 films in history have hit that mark (unadjusted for inflation). Reaching $1 billion would put Top Gun: Maverick in the company of Avatar, Titanic, The Avengers, Jurassic Park, Frozen and The Dark Knight, among others.

Will Top Gun: Maverick keep the crown and go down in history 2022's biggest movie? It's hard to say, due to some stiff competition. Jurassic World Dominion recently released and is racking up high totals ($276,335,820 domestic, $671,785,845 worldwide). July sees major franchise installments with Minions: The Rise of Gru (July 1) and Thor: Love and Thunder (July 8). August sees possible breakout Bullet Train (Aug. 8), November sees Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and December will see the long-awaited release of Avatar: The Way of Water, a sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation). (We also don't want to totally count out December's Whitney Houston biopic I Wanna Dance with Somebody; if the 2018 Queen biopic Bohemian Rhapsody can rack up $911.1 million, who's to say the R&B legend's story can't put some huge numbers on the board?)

Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters now. No home media or streaming plans have been announced, and it is expected to have a lengthy run in theaters. Fans of Cruise (and co-stars Jennifer Connelly, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell) should probably check it out in person if you can't wait to see it (and are comfortable in a theater as the COVID-19 pandemic continues).

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