With the runaway blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick, it’s inevitable that the conversation will eventually drift into the topic of a sequel. The company that brought the film to theaters, Paramount, is having an unprecedented run of success with not only Top Gun but also Sonic the Hedgehog, The Lost City, and Jackass Forever.
Paramount chief Brian Robbins, who only took over the big job in December, recently spoke to Variety about the Tom Cruise smash hit and whether it would get a sequel. First of all, the success of Top Gun took everyone by surprise, he said.
“I’d be lying if I said we knew that Top Gun was going to open to $160 million and break all the records that it did. There was a lot of pent-up nostalgia for this movie, but our team was also able to do what a lot of people didn’t think we’d be able to do, which is bring the under-35 audience to this movie.”
So what about a sequel?
“Let’s see where we are 35 years from now. I don’t want to speculate. This is an incredible run. The sky is the limit for this movie.”
Robbins also pushed for the importance of releasing movies in theaters and not on streaming services.
“We know movies that are released with a big theatrical marketing campaign have a much greater impact when they hit streaming than movies that go straight to streaming without that theatrical release. Before a company like ours had our own streaming service, we would take our IP, make these movies and then basically rent them to other platforms, which helped them build their service. We’re not doing that anymore. We’re taking our IP and using it to build our own service, Paramount+. That is a better business model.”
Top Gun: Maverick is in theaters now. We Got This Covered called it “worthy of every column inch of praise” in a review of the film.
