In its 11th weekend in theaters, Paramount/Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick” finally slipped out of the top five on the box office charts, but not before passing one of the biggest hits of all time, “Titanic,” on the all-time domestic list.
And amazingly, the biggest film of the year may not be done yet, as it has a chance — albeit a small one — to become one of the top 10 highest-grossing films ever worldwide without the aid of a release in China.
This weekend, “Top Gun: Maverick” added $7 million from domestic theaters and $10.3 million internationally, bringing its totals to $662.5 million domestic and $1.35 billion worldwide. On the all-time domestic chart, that puts it seventh as it passes the lifetime gross of “Titanic,” which made $600 million in its initial holiday 1997 theatrical run and an additional $59 million from re-releases in 2012, 2017 and 2020.
Globally, “Maverick” currently stands in the No. 13 position, having passed the global totals of “Black Panther” and “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Pt. 2” this weekend. To crack the top 10 global list, “Maverick” would need to make another $160 million worldwide to pass the $1.51 billion of the 2015 “Fast & Furious” film, “Furious 7.”
That might be a little too much to ask even for a film with historic legs like “Top Gun: Maverick,” but a mark that is very much in reach is $1.4 billion worldwide, which would put it past “Avengers: Age of Ultron” for the No. 12 global spot.
That’s because even at this late stage in its run, “Maverick” is showing better legs than many of the films that were released more than a month after it. The film was just edged out of the top five by “Minions: The Rise of Gru,” which took in $7.1 million in its fifth weekend. Since the release of “Thor: Love and Thunder,” which had the most recent $100 million-plus opening in early July, weekend drops for “Maverick” have held to 20% or less.
If that continues next weekend, “Top Gun: Maverick” should have a 12th weekend total of $5.5-$6 million, which could be enough to leapfrog “Minions” and/or “Thor” and return to the top five. At some point probably in the next two weeks, “Maverick” will pass $678 million and in doing so pass the domestic run of “Avengers: Infinity War.”
And helping “Top Gun: Maverick” along its way this month is an upcoming re-release of the film on Imax screens, a format on which it has grossed over $100 million worldwide so far. The film already made a return to Imax in late June between the releases of “Lightyear” and “Thor: Love and Thunder,” and is now being called upon again by the premium format company to fill its screens during the slow end-of-summer period.
That means that “Maverick” will once again get a small bump from premium surcharges. With Paramount sticking to its plans to give the film a full four-month theatrical exclusivity window before releasing it on streaming, “Top Gun” fans who have supported the film with repeat viewings could return once again to see it on the biggest screen possible.
As we noted when “Maverick” passed the $1 billion mark, the historic success of this blockbuster can be attributed to its own merits, not just because of any nostalgia for its 1986 predecessor. But even after it finally leaves theaters, “Maverick” could continue to pay dividends for Paramount thanks to its success in making Tom Cruise’s already potent star power even stronger. Over the next two summers, the studio will release the two-part “Mission: Impossible: Dead Reckoning,” which thanks to Cruise’s renewed popularity could become that franchise’s highest-grossing installments ever.
