Top Gun: Maverick exceeded all expectations with a $124 million three-day debut (including $19.3 million from Thursday previews), and is poised to deliver an extended four-day opening of $151 million. That'll make it the biggest opening for Tom Cruise, whose four decades of stardom are celebrated in the very meta action sequel.

Maverick made $51.8 million on Friday (including previews) and another $38 million on Saturday. A $151 million four-day finish will put it just shy of the current Memorial Day record holder, Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, which made $153 million in 2007. There is, however, some debate over the box office reporting for that particular weekend.

Internationally, Maverick added another $124 million, for a worldwide debut of $248 million. It's Paramount's second-biggest live-action worldwide debut after Transformers: Age of Extinction. But this is by far Cruise’s personal best. It doubles the $62 million three-day opening that Mission: Impossible — Fallout delivered back in 2018, and is way ahead of the three-day opening of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds in 2005 ($65 million, but the film opened on a Wednesday).

top gun maverick tom cruise
Image via Paramount Pictures

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Cruise was firm about releasing the film in theaters, and his long game with Paramount appears to have played off wonderfully. This is especially notable because it comes at a tenuous time when studios were rushing releases and off-loading all kinds of titles. But Paramount clearly had faith in Maverick, premiering it weeks ahead of release and sending Cruise on a globe-trotting publicity tour that took him to San Diego, Cannes, London, and Tokyo. The gamble paid off, with Maverick zooming into a record number of U.S. theaters (4,735) with breathtaking buzz, spectacular reviews, and a phenomenal A+ CinemaScore.

The first Top Gun was released in 1986 and cemented Cruise as a star. Directed by the late Tony Scott, it made $176 million domestically (around $420 million adjusted for inflation) and $357 million worldwide. Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski and has a reported budget of $170 million (not including publicity and any pandemic-related overheads).

Disney’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness took a distant second spot, with $16.4 million in three days and an estimated $21.1 million over the four-day extended weekend. The superhero sequel’s running domestic total stands at a little over $375 million. Worldwide, the film is closing in on the $900 million mark.

The week’s second major wide release, The Bob’s Burgers Movie, is expected to finish at the lower end of expectations. The film took $12.6 million across three days, with a four-day finish estimated at $15 million.

Downton Abbey: A New Era dropped 63% for a second-weekend haul of $5.9 million. The film is expected to finish with $7.5 million across the extended weekend, taking its running domestic total to $30 million and nearly $69 million internationally. It has some ground to cover if it wants to match the first Downton Abbey film’s performance. That movie made nearly $100 million each domestically and internationally, for a worldwide haul of $194 million. The Bad Guys rounded out the top five with $4.6 million. By Monday, the film is expected to make $6.1 million, taking its running domestic total to $82 million.

Expect Maverick to dominate the box office for at least two weeks, until Jurassic World Dominion roars into theaters on June 10. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.