'Top Gun: Maverick' Box Office early trends suggest career-best opening for Tom Cruise

After witnessing an amazing response at the Cannes Film Festival and other screenings, Tom Cruise-led Top Gun: Maverick has fuelled anticipation among fans. The release of the long-awaited sequel to the iconic 1986 movie is poised to be a defining moment for the box office, which has been so far been dominated by the legacy of superhero films. 

As the release of the film inches closer, and with a lot of build-up around the film, it is believed that Top Gun: Maverick will shatter box office records. As per an analysis by The Hollywood Reporter, Top Gun 2 will comfortably beat his previous releases to be the biggest opening for Tom Cruise at the domestic box office, with a four-day gross of at least $92 million.

Top Gun: Maverick early trends hints at film's success

According to the international media outlet, many trade experts believe that the sequel would cross the $100 million mark domestically, but looking at the post-pandemic situation, the exhibitors are even thinking of a $125 million-plus business. For the unversed, Tom Cruise's biggest opener has been the $64.9 million earned by his 2005 film War of the Worlds.

Even Mission Impossible: Fallout--which is his highest-grossing film at $787 million--opened to a relatively low $61 million in 2012. Now, here's the catch – what will work wonders for the upcoming Cruise starrer release is that it will release theatrically on a Thursday in many markets around the world that will bring an extended weekend collection. If the $125 million projection holds true, the film will have the third-best opening for any movie this year.

Such kinds of openings and releases are usually reserved for superhero films. The movie will seek to beat the figures of The Batman and Marvel Studios’ Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which had opened at $134 million and $187 million respectively.  

The film, which presently sports a stellar 97 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes, co-stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, and Ed Harris, while Val Kilmer also makes a brief appearance as “Iceman,” Maverick’s one-time nemesis-turned-pal. Meanwhile, the 59-year-old star was also honoured with Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival.