Maverick’ Tops $400 Million To Pass ‘Doctor Strange 2’

Well, that was fast. Paramount and Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick earned another $6.74 million on its third Monday, dropping 62% from Sunday and a more conventional 46% from last Monday. It’s not quite an “if it bleeds, we can kill it” fall, but it does show that we’re not automatically looking at a challenger to Force Awakens’ domestic crown. Weep not for Tom Cruise’s legacy sequel, as the film zoomed past $400 million domestic on day 18, giving it a $402 million domestic cume. That pushes it right past Marvel and Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($399 million domestic) to be the year’s top earner in North America. It is now the second-biggest domestic earner of the Covid-era behind Spider-Man: No Way Home ($804 million).

Top Gun: Maverick should have around $764 million worldwide as of yesterday. It will pass The Batman ($770 million) and No Time to Die ($774 million) today to become the fifth-biggest global grosser since 2019 behind Hi, Mom ($835 million), Battle at Lake Changjin ($911 million), Doctor Strange 2 ($930 million) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.891 billion). It should pass Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($792 million in 2018) to become Tom Cruise’s biggest global grosser on Wednesday or (at the latest) Thursday as it zooms past $800 million global sometime this week. By the end of today, the $170 million Joseph Kosinski-directed flick will pass Michael Bay’s Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($402 million in 2009 from a $200 million Wed-Sun debut) as Paramount’s second-biggest unadjusted domestic earner.

That’ll be where it stays, as James Cameron’s Titanic ($658 million) is likely a bridge too far. Even if it continues to leg out like Spider-Man ($403 million from a $285.5 million 17-day cume), it’ll still end with “only” $555 million. It’s past the adjusted gross of Rain Man ($172 million in 1988/$395 million adjusted). Once it passes $441 million, Top Gun: Maverick will pass Top Gun ($180 million in 1986/$440 million adjusted) to become Tom Cruise’s biggest grossing film in “North American tickets sold.” Among Paramount releases since 1995, it’s behind only Transformers 2 ($491 million adjusted) and Titanic ($1.25 billion adjusted). It probably won’t top (offhand) Grease ($188 million in 1978/$708 million adjusted) or Beverly Hills Cop ($234 million in 1984/$617 million adjusted), but I digress.

Even if this week is the start of comparatively “normal” holds, drops and grosses, it’s already looking like a likely $1 billion-plus global earner. The 52.6/47.4 domestic/overseas split is tied with Black Panther (which, like Wonder Woman, ridiculously overperformed in North America but did merely excellent overseas), probably closer to the “new normal” for future blockbusters if China and Russia aren’t in play. It should earn at least $40-$50 million gross (on par with the last three Mission: Impossible movies) in South Korea starting June 23. Nonetheless, Top Gun: Maverick could become among the few $1 billion-plus grossers (alongside The Dark Knight, Rogue One and Black Panther) to earn at least 50% of its money in North America. Although, obviously, no one will mourn a $999.999 million finish.