As it continues to score big at the box office, Paramount head Tom Ryan offers a Top Gun: Maverick streaming release update. The Tom Cruise action movie sequel languished in development hell for over a decade when Paramount first began putting plans together in 2010 for Cruise and Val Kilmer returning with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and director Tony Scott. Scott's suicide in 2012 initially put Top Gun: Maverick in turnaround before Joseph Kosinski was brought on in 2017 to take over the director's chair.
Filming on Top Gun: Maverick would finally kick off in mid-2018 and run through early 2019 with plans for it to hit theaters July 2019. As the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic took hold of the world and the cast and crew were brought back to shoot various complex action sequences, Top Gun: Maverick would see its release date delayed multiple times as Cruise continued to fight for a solely theatrical experience. The action sequel would finally take off on May 27 and score rave reviews from critics and audiences alike and set multiple box office records.
In a recent interview with Variety regarding the studio's plans, Paramount Streaming CEO Tom Ryan has offered a Top Gun: Maverick streaming release update. Ryan confirmed that while the 45-day theatrical window has been a success for Paramount in the past year, the Tom Cruise sequel is not being viewed through this model and a streaming release date has yet to be determined for the film. See what Ryan shared below:
"I think a year or so ago, there was a lot of discussion about what the right model was for movies to streaming, and we were one of the first, if not the first, to come out with the 45-day post theatrical, which gives a lot of value to the marketing of content and allows you to give it a great theatrical exclusive window, but then bring it quickly to streaming. We haven’t decided on that [the theatrical window for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’] yet."
When the pandemic began taking hold, many studios sought to utilize their streaming platforms to help keep new releases coming out, including Warner Bros. releasing their films both on HBO Max and in theaters on the same day. ViacomCBS crafted their own plan for a 45-day exclusive theatrical window for most of its 2021 and 2022 films, including A Quiet Place Part II, Jackass Forever, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 and Scream, with Top Gun: Maverick seemingly falling under this model. Unlike previous Paramount releases, however, Ryan's update points towards the Top Gun sequel not making its streaming landing any time soon.
Given Cruise's affinity for the theatrical experience and reportedly pushing Paramount to keep both Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning as big-screen exclusives, it's understandable the studio has yet to determine a streaming release date for the film. Additionally with Top Gun: Maverick having just surpassed both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Black Panther in its fourth-weekend grossing numbers, it seems likely Paramount would want to keep the film exclusively in theaters in the hopes of keeping the money rolling in. While audiences await word of its streaming release date, they can catch Top Gun: Maverick in theaters now.
Source: Variety