Forget about breaking the sound barrier: Tom Cruise has just surpassed an important milestone in his career.
The 59-year-old superstar has just gotten her first $ 100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” In its first three days in U.S. theaters, the long-running sequel earned about $ 124 million in ticket sales, Paramount Pictures said Sunday. Including international projections, its global total is $ 248 million.
It’s a supersonic start to a movie that still has the open skies of Memorial Day itself to make even more money. According to projections and estimates, at the close of Monday, “Top Gun: Maverick” will likely have more than $ 150 million.
“These results are ridiculously fantastic,” said Chris Aronson, Paramount’s national distribution president. “I’m happy for everyone. I’m happy for the company, for Tom, for the filmmakers.”
While undeniably one of the world’s biggest stars, perhaps even “the latest movie star,” according to several headlines, Cruise is not known for the big box office releases.
Before “Maverick”, his biggest national debut was in 2005, with Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”, which opened for $ 64 million. After that, it was “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” with $ 61 million in 2018. It’s not that their movies don’t make money in the long run – they just don’t have a huge pre-charge.
“Top Gun: Maverick” had a very long journey to the movies. The sequel to “Top Gun” by the late Tony Scott, which premiered in 1986, was scheduled for release in the summer of 2020. Its marketing campaign began technically in July 2019. However, the pandemic got in the way of these plans. , and was delayed several times. Directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and co-produced and co-funded by Skydance, the sequel cost $ 152 million.
But as the months and years went by and many other companies chose to commit to hybrid releases, Cruise and Paramount did not hesitate to make a major film debut. A streaming debut was simply not an option.
“That would never happen,” Cruise told Cannes.
And importantly, with 4,735 American theaters (a record) showing “Top Gun: Maverick.” It also opened in 23,600 locations in 62 international markets.
“This is one of the longest tracks for a marketing campaign for any film. And it only served to create more excitement around the film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst. of Comscore. “This movie was literally waiting for me to return to the movie theater.”
The accumulation has been equally striking, with premieres adorned with fighter jets on an aircraft carrier in San Diego and at the Cannes Film Festival, where Cruise also received an honorary Palme d’Or and a royal premiere in London in which Prince William and his wife Kate attended.
“The feeling you get when you see this movie with an audience, it’s pretty special,” Aronson said. “The first big screening we had, there was spontaneous applause during the film.”
Criticism has also been stellar, with the 97% film on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, who were 58% male, were awarded an A + CinemaScore, according to exit polls.
The new film makes Cruise reprise the role of Maverick, who returns to the elite aviation training program to form the next generation of flyers, such as Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Greg Tarzan Davis, Danny Ramirez, Lewis Pullman and Jay Ellis. Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm and Val Kilmer, who reprise their role from the original, also star.
“This reinforces the notion that the movie theater is a unique and vital outlet for people,” Dergarabedian said. “People are looking for a great escape from everything that’s going on in the world right now.”
“Maverick” is now among the main openers of the pandemic era, still led by “Spider-Man: No Way Home” with $ 260 million, followed by “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” with 187 million and “The Batman” with $ 134 million. .
In particular, “Top Gun: Maverick” is the only non-superhero film in the group. It also attracted a wide range of age groups to the theater. It is estimated that 55% of the audience was over 35 years old.
“Superhero movies are not for everyone. This film is for everyone, and that’s what sets it apart, “said Aronson.
“The Bob’s Burgers Movie” was the only new release that dared to face “Top Gun”. Published by 20th Century Studios and Disney, the animated image earned $ 12.6 million in 3,425 locations. It debuted in third place, behind “Doctor Strange 2,” which grossed $ 16.4 million in its fourth weekend in theaters.
“Top Gun” will continue to have the sky on its own until “Jurassic World: Dominion” opens on June 10th.
“It has a very nice, open market to play in,” Dergarabedian said. “Tom Cruise has always been a matter of consistency. His films talk about the marathon. This is his first film to be released at large box office numbers. Here, he gets the sprint and the marathon.”
Estimated ticket sales Friday through Sunday at theaters in the United States and Canada, according to Comscore. The final national figures will be released on Tuesday.
1. “Top Gun: Maverick,” $ 124 million.
2. “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” $ 16.4 million.
3. “The Bob’s Burgers Movie,” $ 12.6 million.
4. “Downton Abbey: A New Era,” $ 5.9 million.
5. “The Bad Guys,” $ 4.6 million.
6. “Sonic the Hedgehog 2,” $ 2.5 million.
7. “Everything Everywhere All At Once,” $ 2.5 million.
8. “The Lost City,” $ 1.8 million.
9. “Men,” $ 1.2 million.
10. “F3: Fun and Frustration,” $ 1 million.
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Follow AP film writer Lindsey Bahr on Twitter: www.twitter.com/ldbahr