Top Gun: Maverick has been knocked out of the domestic box office Top 10 for the first time in the 20 weeks since its release. The film is a many-years-later sequel to the 1986 hit Top Gun, which starred Tom Cruise as the hotshot pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell. The film sees the character, now in his 50s, returning to the Top Gun program to teach a new crop of young pilots how to pull off an extremely dangerous mission. One wrinkle in his assignment is the fact that one of these students is Rooster Bradshaw (Miles Teller), the son of the deceased Goose Bradshaw, who blames Maverick for his father's death. The film also stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, and Val Kilmer reprising the role of Iceman.
Top Gun: Maverick's incredible opening weekend gross of $126.7 million turned out to be just the beginning for the film, which exceeded all expectations and then some. As of the time of writing, the sequel has grossed $1.48 billion worldwide and become the fifth highest grossing domestic film of all time. Maverick has kept a stranglehold on the box office over the past 19 weeks, staying in the U.S. Top 10 (and more frequently the Top 5) despite the competition from the over 30 newer wide-release movies that came out between May 27 and September 30, including huge blockbusters like Jurassic World Dominion and Marvel's Thor: Love and Thunder.
Per Deadline, the domestic box office this weekend saw three new films enter the top 10. Although the second-week holdout Smile took the #1 slot, the Shawn Mendes family musical Lyle, Lyle Crocodile took #2, the star-studded David O. Russell historical flick Amsterdam took #3, and the slasher sequel Terrifier 2 clawed its way to #10. With holdovers like The Woman King, Don't Worry Darling, and the Avatar re-release filling in the gaps, this is officially the first weekend that Top Gun: Maverick has not been in the Top 10 since its release over four months ago.
Why Was Top Gun: Maverick Such a Success?
Unusually for a film that is a worldwide success, nearly half of its entire gross came from the domestic box office. Typically, international markets form a much larger proportion of an action film's overall profits, but the unique sociopolitical approach of Top Gun: Maverick seems to have allowed it to have broad appeal across all territories. Films about the American military understandably perform better in America historically, though Maverick combined worldwide superstar Tom Cruise with a storyline that keeps the enemy nation intentionally ambiguous, a gamble that seems to have paid off.
That calculated move to goose international profits seems to have combined well with the fact that people seem to genuinely love Top Gun: Maverick. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a 96% critic rating with a 99% audience score. Audiences are likely being thrilled by the in-camera flight effects, a holdover from Cruise's dedication to real-life stunts that he honed on the Mission: Impossible franchise. With everything working in concert to push the film over the top, it makes sense why it would turn out to be such a titanic hit.
Source: Deadline