Top Gun: Maverick has now overtaken Titanic to become the seventh highest earning film at the US domestic box office.
The sequel to the iconic film has generated $662 million (AUD $958m or £379m) since it was released.
Thanks to an intense press tour and word of mouth, the Tom Cruise-led film toppled the James Cameron flick, which earned an impressive $600 million (AUD $868m or £497m) domestically back in 1997.
Maverick has grossed around $1.288 billion (AUD $1.734 billion or £987 million) worldwide, officially making it the highest-earning film of 2022.
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Top Gun: Maverick is also close to clipping Avengers: Infinity War at the domestic box office, which earned a staggering $678 million (AUD $981m or £562m) in ticket sales, as per Variety.
Even in the age of streaming services and the Covid-19 pandemic, the film took home $248 million (AUD $363 million or £196 million) worldwide on its opening weekend, making it one of Cruise’s biggest opening weekends ever, according to ComicBook.
Top Gun: Maverick even got the tick of approval from one of the greatest filmmakers of all time, Quentin Tarantino, who called it a 'cinematic spectacle'.
While speaking with his Pulp Fiction co-writer, Roger Avary, on the ReelBlend podcast, the director said: “I f**king love Top Gun: Maverick. I thought it was fantastic.
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"I saw it at the theatres. … That and [Steven] Spielberg’s West Side Story both provided a true cinematic spectacle, the kind that I’d almost thought that I wasn’t going to see anymore.
"It was fantastic.”
The sequel is also sitting at 96 per cent on Rotten Tomatoes, receiving glowing reviews.
Maxwell Rabb from the Chicago Reader said the film ‘sets a new standard for reboots’ while Simran Hans marvelled that ‘Tom Cruise is here to save cinema’.
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The film is also Paramount's biggest film to date, so it’s no surprise there’s already buzz around a threequel.
Miles Teller, who plays the son of the late Goose, Rooster, recently shared with Entertainment Tonight that he’s ‘having conversations’ with Cruise about a third instalment.
"That would be great, but that's all up to TC," he said. "It's all up to Tom. I've been having some conversations with him about it.
"We'll see."
Let's just hope we don't have to wait another 36 years until Top Gun 3 takes flight.
Topics: News, Top Gun, Tom Cruise, TV and Film
Charisa Bossinakis