NEW YORK (AP) – The high-flying Top Gun: Maverick continued to soar in its second weekend, dropping just 32 per cent from its opening with USD86 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday.
The Paramount Pictures release, with Tom Cruise reprising his role from the 1986 original, is holding steadier than any film of its kind has before. Its modest drop – 50-65 per cent is more typical for blockbusters – is the smallest decline for a movie that opened above USD100 million.
Top Gun: Maverick debuted with USD124 million last weekend, scoring Cruise’s biggest opening yet.Overseas, director Joseph Kosinski’s film is performing even better. In 64 overseas markets, Top Gun: Maverick dipped only 20 per cent in its second weekend with USD81.7 million.
Riding stellar word of mouth, terrific reviews and a global promotional tour, Top Gun: Maverick has already grossed USD548.6 million worldwide, making it easily one the biggest hits of Cruise’s career. In domestic ticket sales (USD291.6 million thus far), the Top Gun sequel already ranks as the 59-year-old’s best performer.
While Top Gun: Maverick is unlikely to match the USD1.89 billion worldwide of Sony Pictures’ Spider-Man: No Way Home, the biggest box-office smash of the pandemic, Cruise and company have been hailed for leading the final push in the recovery of movie theatres. Paramount delayed its release two years.
But whereas No Way Home had little-to-no big-budget competition through January, Top Gun: Maverick kicks off a string of more closely packed summer movies. Next weekend, Universal Pictures debuts Jurassic World: Dominion, the culmination of the dinosaur franchise trilogy of sequels.
The week after that, the Walt Disney Co releases Toy Story spinoff Lightyear” the first Pixar release to open in theatres in more than two years.
Top Gun: Maverick, which actually added screens in its second week to extend its record total to 4,751, will soon find itself in more of a dog fight for audience attention.
Jurassic World: Dominion got a head start over the weekend in 15 international markets, where the Colin Trevorrow-directed film grossed USD55.5 million.
Universal said that was in line with the previous franchise entries. Jurassic World made USD1.67 billion in 2015, while its 2018 follow-up, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, grossed USD1.31 billion.
In United States and Canadian theatres, no new wide release challenged Top Gun: Maverick.
Vikram an Indian Tamil-language action thriller, opened with USD1.8 million in 460 theatres.
Fresh off its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival, David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future opened with USD1.1 million in 773 theatres.
The Neon release, starring Viggo Mortensen, Lea Seydoux and Kristen Stewart, is the Canadian auteur’s first film in eight years.
