‘Top Gun 2,’ ‘Doctor Strange 2’ And ‘Everything, Everywhere’ Pass Box Office Milestones

Skydance and Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick earned another $12.71 million on Wednesday, down just 14% from last Wednesday and 8% from yesterday, bringing its domestic cume up to $334.5 million. That puts it $100 million last Tom Cruise’s previous domestic high-water mark (sans inflation), Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Also, in terms of just raw post-debut legs, the film has already doubled its $160.5 million Fri-Mon opening weekend.

It’s already leggier than not just the three X-Men Memorial Day openers (The Last Stand, Days of Future Past and Apocalypse) but also Fast & Furious 6 ($238 million total from a $117 million debut in 2013) and Solo: A Star Wars Story ($214 million/$103 million in 2018). It will, presumably on Saturday, pass The Batman ($369 million from a $134 million debut) to be the second-biggest domestic earner before it passes Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($392 million-and-counting) in the coming weeks.

With (rough estimate) $625-$635 million worldwide thus far, it has passed the global gross ($611 million) of China’s The Battle at Lake Changjin 2 to become this year’s second-biggest global earner behind The Batman ($760 million with just $20 million from China) and Doctor Strange 2 ($912 million with just $0 million from China). It will pass The Batman in over/under a week to rank second worldwide for 2022. Even if it doesn’t pass the $900 million-plus cume of the MCU sequel, A) it’s still a monster hit considering pre-release expectations and B) it’s going to easily trounce Doctor Strange 2 in domestic earnings.

Not to be outdone, the Sam Raimi-directed Marvel movie has passed the $911 million global gross of China’s The Battle at Lake Changjin from late 2021. That makes it the second biggest Covid-era grosser behind Marvel and Sony’s Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.891 billion including $0.00 from China). Meanwhile, A24’s Everything, Everywhere All at Once will pass (today) the $61.7 million domestic gross of MGM and Channing Tatum’s Dog. The indie smash hit, co-produced by AGBO (the company founded by the Russos, Mike Larocca and Todd Makurath which also produced Netflix’s Extraction and Apple’s Cherry), is now the third-biggest live-action original since the pandemic began.

The Daniels-directed multiverse fantasy, starring Michelle Yeoh and Ke Huy Quan, sits behind only The Lost City ($104 million) and Free Guy ($120 million) in terms of wholly original Hollywood releases since (depending on what you count as original) 1917 ($157 million in early 2020) or Knives Out ($163 million in late 2019). Yes, Lost City and Dog both co-star Channing Tatum, and while I’ve tended to mostly credit Sandra Bullock with the former, they are more proof that Tatum is still bankable when he’s not playing an action hero.

As for AGBO, here’s hoping that The Grey Man (a $200 million actioner starring Chris Evans, Ryan Gosling and Ana De Armas) plays as much like a “real Hollywood blockbuster” as did Extraction. Considering their “Tom Clancy in tights” plotting and “The Raid but with capes” action sequences for Captain America: The Winter Soldier was a key reason as to why Marvel began to dominate the blockbuster ecosystem, and the action in Civil War was also damn terrific, I’m inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt. And as for The Battle at Lake Changjin 1 and 2, well let’s just say Jurassic Park: Dominion is now a big test *for* China instead of a test for Hollywood in China.