Top Gun Maverick was quite an impressive entry this year. While opening smaller, the film has refused to truly lost its momentum; ironic given its focus on jet-fueled action. It seemed like the perfect addition after the pandemic that just had an audience coming to theaters that were waiting for this kind of film. Tom Hanks is about to celebrate his 60th birthday and to truly kick it off, he has now nabbed his first $1 billion box office release with the new Top Gun film.
The film pulled in $521.7M domestically and $484.7M internationally. As such, it is the first release in 2022 to pass that mark and the second from the pandemic era. It is now joining the nostalgia-filled Spider-Man: No Way Home in taking on this huge task and offering a sign that the box office is truly back to where it was in 2019. The pandemic has strongly influenced releases worldwide and no one expected for Top Gun to make that difference, but a pure adrenaline-pumping rollercoaster of a film like this might be just what audiences have been asking for.
It’s overall been a good year for the box office. Earlier in the year, the Scream revival had a better than expected opening, The Batman took in $768M and left quite a mark for DC with an impressive opening. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness also surprised many as after a harsh drop, the film has been pulling in viewers and is inching its way to $950M before leaving theaters. While there have been some blunders like Morbius, the box office overall seems to be doing much better and it may get exciting with upcoming releases.
Source: Deadline, The Numbers (The Batman), The Numbers (Doctor Strange)
