Weekend Box Office 6/6 - TOP GUN Soars in 2nd Week, Will Become Cruise's Biggest U.S. Hit Ever

[AndyDursin]

It's beyond obvious at this point that TOP GUN is getting a lot of us back into a movie theater and in big numbers. This drop-off is the smallest for a major blockbuster since SHREK 2 in 2004 (!), and I'd say it's going to play all summer as it's not your typical MarvelGuyInASuit movie.

There are an awful lot of factors -- the movie is really good. Word of mouth is great, I know a bunch of people other than myself who have been back more than once. The marketplace has been dominated by teenage superhero crap for years. But I think there are other elements, socio-political ones. This is a movie that wasn't made by Disney suits with an inclusion clipboard making sure there were lbgqtaiez#! elements baked into the narrative. It's not a movie that's ashamed of our country. It's not depressing, and it makes people feel good.

Amazing something like that will make buckets of cash...maybe they ought to remember that?

Saturday AM Update: Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick held throughout the week, and it’s holding at a brilliant steady in weekend 2. I’m hearing that its -33% ease is one of the best for a wide release that’s opened to north of $100M, ahead of the -40% posted by Star Wars: The Force Awakens in December 2015, and tied with 2004’s Shrek 2 (-33%).

Top Gun 2 is looking at $84.5M, which will put it at $290M EOD Sunday; easily the best Tom Cruise has ever seen at the domestic box office. The Joseph Kosinski-directed movie cashed in a second Friday at $25M, $5M ahead of where we saw it yesterday afternoon.

[Monterey Jack]

I couldn't be happier with how well Top Gun 2 is doing...and this is coming from someone who thought the 1986 original was Just Okay. Proof that, if you make a nostalgic "legacy sequel" that's ACTUALLY GOOD (and one not laden down with craven attempts to "modernize" it by pushing a current socio-political agenda), people will beat a path to the multiplex and won't desert the movie after a single weekend. And coming as the first major sally in the first summer season since 2019 where we're about 80% back to "normality" makes it even more satisfying.