Top Gun: Maverick's record-breaking box office success is a turning point for movie theaters according to financial expert Scott Sheridan. After years of delays primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the long-awaited legacy sequel to Tony Scott's 1986 classic Top Gun finally debuted in theaters last weekend on May 27 and broke multiple box office records. Top Gun 2 surpassed Pirates of the Caribbean 3 as the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend movie of all time at $156 million, also a career-high opening weekend for star Tom Cruise.
Cruise returns to lead the Top Gun 2 cast as Pete Mitchell alongside Val Kilmer, who briefly reprises his role as Maverick's former rival Iceman. Prominent newcomers include Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Danny Ramirez, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris. Set 36 years after the original film, Maverick finds the titular test pilot returning to the famed Top Gun program where he must confront the ghosts of his past and train a younger generation of fighter pilots for a death-defying mission. Lately, it's been nothing but good news for Top Gun: Maverick, as the film opened to rave reviews and a huge haul at the box office, which could end up marking a turning point for movie theaters.
In a new analysis shared by Sheridan, CEO of tastyworks, the financial expert discussed what Top Gun: Maverick's historic debut means for movie theaters. While Sheridan doesn't think one movie has the ability to single-handedly save the entire industry, the Top Gun sequel surely inspires a lot of hope and may end up being a significant turning point for theaters. Read Sheridan's expert commentary below:
I’ve kind of been waiting to see if people could be drawn back into movie theaters. It’s not so much I wondered if people felt safe in light of Covid, but whether they’d be willing to pay. Going to see a movie for a family of 4 can easily cost you upwards of $100 when you factor in food and drinks. That’s a big expense, especially when you realize you can spend $120 for a year’s worth of a streaming service and watch those movies at home. But Top Gun really gave movie theaters some reason to be optimistic.
I’m not sure one movie can save the entire industry but it can validate people still enjoy going to see movies on big screens. Whether enough movies can be produced to consistently draw in customers remains to be seen. We’ll see if the new Jurassic Park can keep the momentum going.
Top Gun: Maverick's massive opening weekend has inspired optimism in those who cherish seeing films on the big screen, especially in IMAX, and the movie theater industry itself. Its debut was especially important for theater chains that have been struggling mightily since the pandemic began. This is especially true for the world's largest theater chain, AMC Theaters, which lost $4.6 billion of revenue in 2020 and has been struggling to stay afloat ever since.
Maverick won't single-handedly save the theater industry, though Sheridan and many market experts believe it is a major step forward for the revival of movie theaters in a post-pandemic world and a major sign the industry is not dying. Before Maverick, Marvel movies were mostly keeping theaters alive, but unlike superhero blockbusters, which are mostly targeted toward younger demographics, the Top Gun sequel saw older audiences return to theaters in droves for the first time since the pandemic began. Jurassic World: Dominion will be the next tentpole to test the waters on June 10, but until then, it will be interesting to see if Top Gun: Maverick posts two consecutive strong weekends, or suffer a significant drop.
Source: Scott Sheridan, tastyworks