Top Gun Soars to Netflix Top 10 Ahead of Maverick Premiere

Ahead of the release of Top Gun: Maverick this weekend, the original Tom Cruise-starring movie is soaring through the Top 10 on Netflix. The film has been streaming on the service since February of this year but hasn't reached even close to the most popular movies on the platform, ahead of the sequel's debut though it is climbing fast. Starting last week on May 21st the film debuted in the #9 slot and has hovered in the top 10, roughly around the #5 spot, ever since. The popularity of the first film on Netflix is certainly a clear indicator of the sequel's potential at the box office.

Early tracking for Top Gun: Maverick has it on track to open to $180 million worldwide in its first weekend and upwards of $125 million in the United States alone. Even the lowest prediction's for Top Gun: Maverick's premiere have it pegged for a $90 million opening domestically which would still make it the biggest opening weekend of Tom Cruise's entire career. Considering the rise in the film's popularity on Netflix, currently the only place where it's streaming, the higher end of those projections might end up being correct after all. Top Gun will actually be leaving Netflix at the end of the month.

As of this writing, Top Gun: Maverick holds a "Certified Fresh" distinction on Rotten Tomatoes along with a 97% approval rating and over 230 reviews. The critical consensus for the film reads: "Top Gun: Maverick pulls off a feat even trickier than a 4G inverted dive, delivering a long-belated sequel that surpasses its predecessor in wildly entertaining style." Cruise stars in the film alongside Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris.  

Paramount's official description for the sequel can be found here: "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 and 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."