The heavens are shining on Paramount. Today, the production company announced that their epic sequel Top Gun: Maverick surpassed the $1 billion box office milestone worldwide, and is breaking record after record. Due to the film's massive success, Paramount is boasting the top of the charts for 2022 at the box office, having pulled over $520 million domestically and dominating 26% of the market, due in large part to the mind-blowing success of Maverick.

Paramount Pictures is reigning supreme at #1 in domestic box office for 2022, and this comes as no surprise to anyone who has kept up with the overwhelming response to Top Gun: Maverick, a sequel nearly forty years in the making. Having hit landmark after landmark since its initial theatrical release on May 27 in time for Memorial Day weekend, Top Gun: Maverick immediately made shock waves as the highest grossing preview in Paramount history, as well as being the highest grossing Memorial Day preview in history. On top of that, Maverick marked Paramount's fifth #1 opening for 2022 after Scream 5, Jackass Forever, The Lost City, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. According to reports, over the past five weeks that Maverick has been in theaters, the film has maintained its 5 out of 5 stars status, at 94% positive ratings, dodging the drop in enthusiasm typical of films in subsequent weeks after release.

After the theater slump in the wake of the pandemic Paramount opted to forego streaming releases, keeping Maverick strictly theatrical, claiming it was necessary to experience the sequel in theaters. The bold move proved to be a success as the film marked nearly 13% of audiences' return to movie theaters, making it more than a film release, but a film event. In addition to the film's nostalgia — just in time for the '80s comeback of 2022 —Maverick was filmed for and released to 755 IMAX screens across 71 territories. In the opening weekend alone, Maverick soared past expectations and gleaned $51.8 million on its opening day, and earned Cruise's career his best opening ever at $248 million worldwide, and the momentum hasn't stopped since, threatening to deplete us of all our flighty puns. To date, Maverick has grossed over $520 million domestically, and over $486 million internationally, rounding out to a global cumulative of over $1 billion. Those numbers earn the film yet another milestone, being only the fiftieth film in box office history to earn that honor, joining the ranks of films like Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Last Jedi and Titanic.

top gun maverick
Image via Paramount Pictures

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Paramount Pictures President and Chief Executive Officer, Brian Robbins said:

“It’s rare to get the special kind of alchemy that creates a true event film, and we have been absolutely blown away by the global response to Top Gun: Maverick. Thank you to the incomparable Tom Cruise, our visionary filmmakers and talented cast, and our amazing marketing and distribution teams, for delivering an absolutely perfect movie and theatrical experience for audiences around the world.”

The film's predecessor, 1986's Top Gun starring Tom Cruise, is, at its heart, a love note to all the things America aims to stand on: courage, glory, and sacrifice. Combining unique aerial shots with an '80s rock-synth extravagant score by Harold Faltermeyer and unforgettable soundtrack, as well as America's heartthrob Cruise, the film was designed to be an American classic. Three decades later, Paramount presented audiences with the recipe for cinema gold in their re-introduction of the Top Gun universe to new generations. Boarding newer faces such as up-and-coming Miles Teller (Spiderhead) as Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw — the son of Maverick's ill-fated co-pilot Goose — Insecure's Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez (The Falcon and the Winter Soldier) and Monica Barbaro (The Good Cop) with old familiars like Cruise, Val Kilmer and '80s icon Jennifer Connelly, Maverick appealed to a wide audience. Overall the film has earned an A+ CinemaScore, garnering a whopping 97% from critics and a near-flawless 99% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes.

Top Gun: Maverick has exceeded expectations not only with the box office, but has become the highest grossing film of Cruise's four-decades-long career. Oscar-nominee Cruise has had starring roles in blockbuster classics since early on his career, including Risky Business, Top Gun, Rain Man opposite Dustin Hoffman, A Few Good Men with Jack Nicholson, and the closest he's come to $1 billion with Mission: Impossible - Fallout at $791.1 million. In addition to being Cruise's highest grossing film, Top Gun: Maverick is Paramount's largest action epic internationally across 25 markets including the UK, France, Australia and more. In its fifth weekend, Maverick opened #1 in Korea, and all this without showings in two giant markets, China and Russia.

As with Top Gun, Maverick's soundtrack has topped the charts for #1 album on iTunes, the #1 soundtrack for Amazon and is holding onto its #2 album on Spotify. Where Top Gun made Berlin's "Take My Breath Away" and Kenny Loggin's "Danger Zone" impossible to get out of our heads, Maverick has Lady Gaga's "Hold My Hand," - reminiscent of the '80s and '90s ballad-belting tunes - careening to the top 50 lists across the music charts.

Top Gun: Maverick is produced by Paramount, Skydance and Jerry Bruckheimer Films, co-produced by Skydance, and directed by Joseph Kosinski. You can see this historical film in theaters, and IMAX.