Tom Cruise Passes Batman And Bond

With $7.65 million on Tuesday, -44% from last Tuesday and +15% from Monday, Top Gun: Maverick has earned $409.5 million after 19 days at the domestic box office. That puts it (sans inflation) in 33rd place between Iron Man 3 ($409 million in 2013) and Wonder Woman ($412.5 million in 2017). It will crack the top 30 probably tomorrow when it passes the $417 million cume of Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. It already passed the domestic cume of Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness which (with a current $399.5 million cume) itself should pass $400 million domestic today. Meanwhile, presuming a continued 52.6/47.4 domestic/overseas split, the $170 million legacy sequel is at $778 million, past both The Batman ($770 million) and No Time to Die ($774 million).

That makes the Joseph Kosinski-directed action drama, co-starring Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Jon Hamm and Glen Powell, Hollywood’s third biggest Covid-era earner behind Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($930 million) and Spider-Man: No Way Home ($1.9 billion). It’s fifth overall behind those two and China’s Hi Mom ($835 million) and Battle at Lake Changin ($911 million) but give it time. Oh, and barring a fluke, it’ll also pass Mission: Impossible – Fallout ($792 million in 2018) sometime tomorrow to become Tom Cruise’s biggest global grosser. Presuming no major changes, it’ll pass $800 million worldwide on Friday. On Saturday or Sunday, it will likely become Cruise’s biggest inflation-adjusted domestic earner (past the $440 million adjusted total of Top Gun) as it aims to end weekend four past $450 million.

As noted in the aftermath of its colossal $160.5 million domestic and $300 million global debut, Top Gun: Maverick should mark the first time since Cruise’s Mission: Impossible II ($215 million domestic and $545 million worldwide) in 2000 that a real-world action movie has topped at least the domestic box office for the summer. It’s still some distance from Doctor Strange 2 and I wouldn’t yet count out Jurassic World Dominion, but even Spider-Man ($403 million domestic and $821 million worldwide) was tops domestically but third worldwide (behind the second Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings films) in 2002. It’ll surely end the summer as the biggest domestic earner, and only Black Panther: Wakanda Forever in November and Avatar: The Way of Water in December are serious threats.

It’s already the biggest-grossing non-fantastical action movies ever (give or take whether you count Titanic as “action”) in unadjusted domestic grosses. It’s already soared past Skyfall ($303 million), American Sniper ($350 million) and Furious 7 ($353 million). Yes, The Dark Knight ($533 million) and Black Panther ($700 million) contain next-to-no supernatural/fantastical elements, but they are costumed DC/Marvel superheroes. Heck, Top Gun: Maverick might be past The Dark Knight Rises’ $449 million cume by Sunday anyway. It has sold more domestic tickets than any James Bond film save for Goldfinger and Thunderball. In terms of inflation-adjusted grosses, we can debate what qualifies as “real world action” (Smokey and the Bandit, The Towering Inferno, etc.) once we see if Top Gun: Maverick will end closer to $500 million or $550 million.