Tom Cruise isn’t done yet, and neither are big-budget blockbusters without spandex-wearing superheroes. Cruise delivered a career-best $248 million worldwide debut with Top Gun: Maverick, which outperformed his previous best – Mission: Impossible - Fallout – by 28%. The action sequel opened in 62 international markets this weekend, where it made $124 million by Sunday. Maverick made another $124 million in its three-day domestic debut, with estimates for the extended Memorial Day weekend pegged at $151 million.

Cruise had his best opening in 32 of the aforementioned markets with Top Gun: Maverick; while 18 of those markets gave Paramount its biggest live-action debut. Overall, Top Gun: Maverick is the studio’s second-best worldwide live-action debut after Transformers: Age of Extinction. Though Transformers: Dark of the Moon made more by the end of its first weekend, the film opened for previews on Tuesday.

Maverick marks the fifth theatrical success this year for Paramount, after Scream, Jackass Forever, The Lost City, and Sonic the Hedgehog 2. This is a remarkable return to form for the studio, which was struggling only recently with a change in leadership and was forced to offload several titles to streaming during the pandemic. Paramount displayed confidence in the film, choosing not to rush it out during brief release windows in the last couple of years; instead, sending Cruise on a globe-trotting publicity tour that took him to San Diego, Cannes, London, and Tokyo. Top Gun: Maverick debuted with a stellar A+ CinemaScore, some of the best reviews of Cruise’s career, and the entire summer in front of it.

top gun maverick

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Maverick could cross the $300 million mark internationally by the end of the extended weekend, and even a modest 2X multiplier would put it at $600 million worldwide by the end of its run, and this is a conservative estimate. If Maverick continues as it is expected to, being the summer’s top choice for adults (displaying the kind of legs that Cruise’s films tend to), it could have a shot at $1 billion. Interestingly, this is without the Chinese and Russian markets. The U.K. was the top market internationally with $19.4 million. France came in the second international spot with $11.7 million, Australia delivered $10.7 million, Japan was close behind with $9.7 million, and Germany brought in $6.5 million.

The first film, which was directed by the late Tony Scott, made $176 million domestically back in 1986, which translates to around $420 million adjusted for inflation. If Maverick has a 3X multiplier, it will finish with around the same figure. The film is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who has another movie—Spiderhead—due for release on Netflix in June.

Maverick also stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Ed Harris, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Danny Ramirez, Monica Barbaro, Manny Jacinto, and Val Kilmer. Read the film’s official synopsis down below:

Test pilot Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Cruise) has purposely dodged an advancement in rank after thirty years of service. One day Maverick is called to be put in charge of training a group of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission under the orders of his fellow naval aviator friend and former rival, Tom "Iceman" Kazansky (Kilmer), who is the commander of the U.S. Pacific Fleet. Among them is Lieutenant Bradley "Rooster" Bradshaw (Teller), the son of Maverick's late best friend Nick "Goose" Bradshaw (Edwards).

Top Gun: Maverick is now playing.