Top Gun: Maverick Could Have Tom Cruise's Biggest Opening of All-Time

By Spencer Perry

With the storied career that the actor has had, it might surprise you to know that a Tom Cruise movie has never opened above $65 million at the domestic box office in its first weekend. In fight his biggest opening weekend was 2005's War of the Worlds, which debuted to $64.8 million; even Mission: Impossible – Fallout, his biggest movie ever with over $787 million globally, opened to $61.2 million in the us. All of that will probably change this weekend when the highly anticipated Top Gun: Maverick debuts however as current box office tracking for the thirty-years-later sequel all but confirm it will break records.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the Memorial Day weekend opening for Top Gun: Maverick could give the actor at minimum a $92 million opening over the holiday. They note that many believe the film will easily cross the $100 million threshold in its debut with some estimating a debut as high as $125 million. The only other movies so far this year that have opened that high or higher are The Batman with $134 million and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness with $187 million. Top Gun: Maverick opens in 4,732 screens in North America this weekend.

As of this writing, Top Gun: Maverick holds a "Certified Fresh" distinction on Rotten Tomatoes along with a 97% approval rating. 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."  

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