Heading into Top Gun: Maverick, not a lot of people were expecting the long-awaited sequel to smash quite so many box office records. Tom Cruise remains one of the most proven draws and biggest stars in the business, but Joseph Kosinski’s follow-up was arriving three years behind its original July 2019 release, and a full 36 after Tony Scott’s original.
And yet, the milestones just keep on falling to the dogfighting blockbuster, with Maverick having added another impressive milestone to its collection after scoring Tom Cruise’s first 100+ million opening weekend, in addition to the single highest-grossing Memorial Day debut haul in history, smashing past a record Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End had held for 15 years.
The latest numbers paint an even more encouraging picture, with Top Gun 2 following up its jaw-dropping first frame by hauling in $15.8 million from domestic screens yesterday. While that doesn’t sound too spectacular in and of itself, it’s the third-highest Tuesday gross ever in May, behind only Avengers: Infinity War and The Avengers, both of which were monster-sized Marvel Cinematic Universe crossover events.
To put things into even more context, the previous high for a non-Marvel Tuesday in the fifth month of the year came when Guy Ritchie’s Aladdin nabbed $12 million back in 2019, with Top Gun: Maverick exceeding that figure by almost a clear 33%. It just goes to show that a well-placed marketing campaign and rave reviews are still capable of putting butts in seats all over the country.
