“Top Gun: Maverick” Tops Box Office With $156 Million

After weeks of speculation “Top Gun: Maverick” set a box office record for Memorial Day holiday weekend.

Paramount’s sequel to the 1986 blockbuster made an estimated $156 million domestically for its four-day opening weekend, breaking by only three million dollars the record set by “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” in 2007.

The long-awaited Tom Cruise super production made an additional $126 million overseas, adding for a $282 million global opening. This was the third movie of the year to break $100 million openings in the domestic market after “The Batman” and “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” reached the milestone.

It seems to be that the $11,000 paid to the U.S. Navy for an hour to use F/A-18 Super Hornets paid every penny for the studio and for Cruise’s role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell.

The new release gives a breath of fresh air to studios and theaters who are recovering from a deep plunge after the pandemic almost halted the whole industry. Now a hot summer might be next, adding hopes for the most lucrative season of the year with expectations rising for “Jurassic World: Dominion”. The Universal Studios new release of the blockbuster saga is set to open June 9.