Top Gun: Maverick's continued box office success could see the film double Tom Cruise's second highest-grossing movie, Mission: Impossible – Fallout. Coming 36 years after the original Top Gun, Joseph Kosinski's legacy sequel was finally released in theaters at the end of May after numerous delays pushed the film from its original 2019 release date. Top Gun: Maverick has been a major hit with both audiences and critics, marking the return of Cruise's hotshot pilot, Pete "Maverick" Mitchell, as he trains a new batch of Top Gun recruits for a dangerous mission in enemy territory.

Although it's now been almost two months since its wide theatrical release, Top Gun: Maverick continues to dominate at the box office. Marketing for the film both before and after release has been strong, with Kosinski and Cruise hyping the film's intense aerial combat. The film had a strong opening weekend back in May and recently became not only the highest-grossing movie of Cruise's career, but only the second movie since 2019 to pass $1 billion at the box office. Last week,Top Gun: Maverick surpassed Titanic's opening run to become Paramount's biggest movie ever at the domestic box office.

Per a new report from Forbes, Top Gun: Maverick has now officially earned more than $1.2 billion, putting it on track to double the box office gross of 2018's Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which earned a total of $791 million during its theatrical run. The legacy sequel has seen minimal drops from weekend to weekend and now, in its eighth week, the film only dropped 24%. At $617 million earned domestically, Top Gun: Maverick is also on track to surpass both Star Wars: The Last Jedi ($620M) and The Avengers ($623M), according to Variety.


Although there have been many factors key to Top Gun: Maverick's success, the film's strong word-of-mouth is undoubtedly a major reason for the film's low weekend-to-weekend drops. In a time when the future of theatrical movies is still very much in flux, Top Gun: Maverick's continued performance is a key indicator that audiences are still more than willing to head to their local theater for select films. Crucially, while the film has plenty to please fans of the original Top Gun, it has also been a major draw for new audiences, introducing new characters and innovative filmmaking techniques.

It remains to be seen how long Top Gun: Maverick's strong box office performance will continue, but the film's earnings are a strong indicator that a shorter, 45-day theatrical window would have been a major mistake. It's also unclear what the Top Gun sequel's success means for the future of the Mission: Impossible franchise and the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One next year. While it's hard to imagine the next Mission: Impossible film seeing the same levels of success as Top Gun: Maverick, the latest legacy sequel demonstrates that strong marketing and positive word-of-mouth can do wonders when it comes to record-breaking box office numbers.