“Top Gun: Maverick,” the sequel to the 1986 blockbuster, hits theaters on Memorial Day weekend. Cruise is resuming its role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, the arrogant fighter pilot who felt the need for speed 36 years ago.
The Paramount movie, which features Cruise Maverick teaching a new class of Top Gun recruits, is expected to earn about $ 80 million for its three-day opening. Some experts claim that the film is worth more than $ 100 million. This will make “Maverick” the highest grossing debut of Cruise ‘s 40 – year career, surpassing “War of the Worlds”, which opened for $ 64.8 million in 2005.
Cruise and Paramount are ready for a big weekend, with the film earning $ 19.2 million in its previous screenings. Paramount said it represents its highest-grossing preview in the company’s history and the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend preview ever.
“Tom Cruise is one of the few real movie stars left in the business,” Paul Dergarabedian, a senior media analyst at Comscore (SCOR), told CNN Business. “His name on the marquee means something to the public who have come to trust that his films will be worth every dollar of this movie ticket purchase.”
Cruise control
It may seem strange that none of Cruise’s films have had an opening above $ 65 million, but that’s because Cruise is the Hank Aaron of Movies, a reliable and consistent blockbuster that has achieved more than $ 10 billion at the world box office. since 1981, though his films have never come close to a $ 100 million opening.
“Cruise is about the marathon, not the sprint, when it comes to your performance at the box office,” Dergarabedian said. “The consistency of its bankability over its more than four decades on the big screen is virtually unmatched.”
“Maverick” was due to hit theaters in 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic. Other theatrical films went live, but “Maverick” waited and waited until the audience could experience it on the big screen, a strategy on which Cruise was adamant.
Keeping the premiere for two years has paid off, and the film received rave reviews. It currently has an almost perfect score of 97% on the Rotten Tomatoes review site.
It remains to be seen whether the buzz translates into ticket sales, but certainly not for lack of proof by Paramount or Cruise. Cruise has done everything possible, from landing a helicopter on the deck of an aircraft carrier for the film’s premiere to landing James Corden on a jet to show “Maverick” at the Festival of Cannes, where he inspired a standing ovation for five minutes. .
“Maverick is almost certain to become his biggest career right now,” Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at BoxOffice.com, told CNN Business. “Everything is in his favor, from strong criticism to the buzz of social media, early ticket sales and an impatient audience that has been waiting for a sequel to his career role for a long time.”
Robbins added that younger viewers “drive the lion’s share of the box office business,” but even though “Maverick” comes 36 years after the original, it still matters.
“Don’t get me wrong, this is still a very important film to help bring back more pandemic-era regattas of a certain age that may still make a difference to the overall health of the industry as is still recovering, “Robbins said.
Going back up the mountain
The way “Maverick” comes out at the box office also matters a lot to Paramount.
Like its famous Snow Mountain logo, Paramount (PGRE) used to be on top of the mountain in Hollywood, producing hits such as “The Godfather”, “Raiders of the Lost Ark” and “Titanic”.
Recently, however, the studio has struggled to find its place in a constantly evolving film industry. It’s been more than a decade since Paramount took first place in annual box office market share.
However, the studio is doing very well in 2022 and is currently in third place thanks to the hit films “Scream”, “The Lost City” and “Sonic the Hedgehog 2”. Paramount has even done more than Disney (DIS) so far this year. And with “Maverick” about to take off this weekend, Paramount’s 2022 could fly even higher.
“Paramount has been one of the studios at the forefront of the rise of movies,” Robbins said. “From a philosophical point of view, what has meant his presence on the big screen for theatrical performance could be one of the most important years in Paramount’s history.”