Top Gun: Maverick, the 36-year-old sequel to Tom Cruise’s successful airplane film, soared as soon as it was released at the head of the American box office, according to provisional figures published on Sunday May 29 by the specialized firm. Exhibitor Relations.
Presented at the Cannes Film Festival, where Tom Cruise received an honorary palme d’or, the Paramount / Skydance blockbuster raised $ 151 million in the United States and Canada according to these estimates over four days, from Friday to Monday, holiday for Americans celebrating Memorial Day.
It is the highest-grossing film in Tom Cruise’s 40-year career and the first to top $100 million on opening weekend. War of the Worlds, which opened with $64 million in 2005, was previously the Hollywood actor’s biggest opening weekend.
But Top Gun: Maverick needs those many entries to justify its hefty $170 million production budget, which doesn’t include the tens of millions spent promoting the film to audiences around the world. The first, presented at the Cannes Film Festival, ended with the flight over the Croisette by eight fighter planes (paid by the French government).
The sequel to Top Gun received critical acclaim. It scored 97% on Rotten Tomatoes and a CinemaScore of “A”. Tom Cruise still plays Navy test pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, now a captain, who trains to bomb a rogue country’s uranium enrichment plant.
The film boasts a solid cast, with Ed Harris, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller and Jon Hamm, while Top Gun veteran Val Kilmer makes a brief appearance as Iceman, a key character from the first. shutter.
The over-40s came out in force, which is impressive as they are the most reluctant to return to theaters. The film’s positive word-of-mouth should help reach younger audiences, who weren’t even born when the first Top Gun was released.
With this supersonic entry, Top Gun: Maverick dethrones Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the latest production from Marvel Studios, leading three weekends in a row, and which still totals 21.1 million in revenue from Friday to Monday. The sequel to the adventures of the neurosurgeon turned sorcerer, played by Benedict Cumberbatch, had the best launch of the year, with 187 million dollars.
In third place (15 million dollars) comes the animated film Bob’s Burgers: The Movie, based on the American television series of the same name, which tells the funny adventures of a family running a hamburger restaurant.
With $7.5 million, Downton Abbey 2: A New Era ranks fourth, ahead of The Bad Guys, outlaw animals who try to become nice ($6.1 million).
Here is the rest of the Top 10:
6. Sonic 2 (3,1 millions)
7. Everything Everywhere All at Once (3,1 millions)
8. The Secret of the Lost City (2.3 million)
9. Men (1,5 million)
10. Fantastic Beasts: Dumbledore’s Secrets (1.1 million)
