Top Gun: Maverick Zooms Past Doctor Strange 2 to Become Highest-Grossing Movie of 2022 Box Office

Top Gun: Maverick has zoomed past Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to become the highest-grossing movie of 2022. It's not a shock that the crowd-pleasing feature is flying to these heights. The Tom Cruise movie has passed $400 million at the domestic box office and threatens to keep the afterburners on weeks after release. Paramount would have to be thrilled with Maverick's performance. However, the pandemic era champion, Spider-Man: No Way Home, is going to be a tough mark to reach. The Sony film sits at $804 million domestically and has a re-release planned for the fall with more content added in. So, the question dances in a lot of observers' minds: How high can Maverick fly by the time that the summer comes to an end?

A lot of people asked why make a Top Gun Sequel more than 30 years after the original released in theaters. Well, Producer Jerry Bruckheimer detailed his thought process in a recent interview. They weren't just going to make Maverick because they could, there had to be a reason.

"I wasn't ready to make a sequel until we had a special story worthy of a sequel," Bruckheimer explained. "And until technology evolved so we could delve deeper into the experience of a fighter pilot. The movie became something that changed a generation. So, this is exciting to come back and get in those jets again."

Here's how Paramount is describing the return to one of Cruise's most iconic roles:

"After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy's top aviators, Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: 'Rooster,' the son of Maverick's late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka 'Goose.' Facing an uncertain future confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it."

Have you seen Top Gun: Maverick yet? Let us know down in the comments!