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Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
That cheese-eating grin on Tom Cruise’s face is there for a massive reason–it just sunk the Titanic to become Paramount Pictures’ highest domestic-grossing film in its first run. That’s a fair amount of adjectives and qualifiers to say Top Gun: Maverick just cashed in a dump truck of receipts.
As of today, Top Gun: Maverick has grossed $601.9 million at the U.S. box office. The number is a benchmark because Titanic hauled in $600.8 million across the states in 1997. That record at Paramount Pictures was considered untouchable.
This is the same studio that launched the Mission: Impossible and Transformers franchises. The “mountain of content” also gave notable collections like Shrek, the Star Trek reboots, Indiana Jones, and a few of Marvel’s first offerings (e.g., Iron Man 1 and 2, Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger). And yet, here comes smiling Tommy in his F/A-18 Hornet buzzing the tower en route to a gold mine.
Top Gun Headed for the Danger Zone
When Don Simpson and Jerry Bruckheimer determined to make Top Gun in 1983, they didn’t know the three-year love affair it would take to bring it to the big screen. Fresh off their recent hits as Flashdance (1983) and Beverly Hills Cop (1984). The two filmmakers and the great Tony Scott made a frathouse version of pilot school and made an iconic reflection on two careers–Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer.
Simpson and Bruckheimer not only had experience with what they put on screen but also on wax. The aforementioned films had impressive soundtracks, so they wrangled something for this new fighter pilot movie. They controlled the rights of the soundtrack for Top Gun, which, thanks to Berlin (“Take my Breath Away”), Kenny Loggins (“Danger Zone”), and Harold Faltermeyer (“Top Gun Anthem”), was No. 1 on the Billboard charts for weeks. Not to mention, Berlin won an Oscar for best original song.
Yet, it seemed the original movie was cursed:
- Real-life stunt pilot Art Scholl crashed and died while capturing aerial footage of fight scenes
- Bruckheimer’s partner, Don Simpson, overdosed with a drug cocktail he started experimenting during the film’s development 11 years previously
- Although two years of work went into production, Simpson did “proactive damage control” with heavy rewriting
- The reviews lauded the aerial scenes but pretty much hated everything on the ground
Top Gun: Maverick came from good stock as it was the top-grossing movie in 1986. The genesis film became a beacon of glory in the 1980s. Jerry Bruckheimer would go off to mentor Michael Bay and make these TV shows called “CSI” that did pretty good on CBS. And Tom Cruise became, well, Tom Cruise! Yet, the film wasn’t greeted with glowing reviews. It still features a 58% on Rotten Tomatoes, 6.9 on IMDb, and 50% on Metacritic.
Top Gun developed so much nostalgia mojo that almost four decades later, its sequel would reign atop one of the most prolific Hollywood studios in history. How is that possible?
Top Gun: Maverick Took Our Breath Away
(Credit: AP Photo/Alberto Pezzali)
The movie that Jerry Bruckheimer believed would be “Star Wars on Earth” eventually became a large success with a loyal cultish following. The movie gave people in 1986 a glimpse into a world people never knew. Today, in a world of CGI and AI movie effects, anything outside the realm of possibility becomes possible with a switch. So, why would Top Gun: Maverick become so successful? Maybe, because it was a real glimpse back into that world, some didn’t know and others may have forgotten?
Director Joseph Kosinski (Only the Brave, Oblivion, TRON: Legacy) doesn’t have a stellar resume, but he had Cruise’s trust thanks to Oblivion. That would go a long way, but his vision for Top Gun: Maverick took it the extra mile, as he shared with Bloomberg:
I wanted it to have that old-school experience. Just as Maverick is going back to Top Gun, I wanted to take the audience back to that type of filmmaking.
Jospeh Kosinski, Bloomberg, May 2022
He did, and the audience responded with gratitude. A movie like Top Gun: Maverick came at the right time. The only thing bringing people back to the theater following the pandemic was a good comic book movie. While most people reading this post love that fact, Hollywood needed to know fans still wanted a genuine cinematic experience.
Top Gun was a movie of achievement, competition, and a trough of machismo. We needed a “real” movie with some unreal effects. Mach 10?! Well, there’s your surrealism (mostly). The reality was the stunt pilot coverage, ace pilot stunts, and all that hoopla. And then, the record that broke Paramount’s bank.
For 110 years, Paramount Pictures has produced and distributed some of the most iconic films in Hollywood history, including the all-time classic Titanic, which marks its 25th anniversary this year. Top Gun: Maverick is a phenomenal motion picture, and we take deep pride in celebrating this tremendous achievement alongside Tom Cruise, our filmmakers and cast, our marketing and distribution teams, and, of course, all the new and original Top Gun fans, without whom this wouldn’t have been possible.
President and CEO of Paramount Pictures Brian Robbins
Tom Cruise brought us the first $1 billion movie of the “Pandemic Era.” It wasn’t Marvel or DC. Paramount did it. And the tiny Scientologist dethroned James Cameron! The feat was impressive on many levels, but it was the shot in the arm that Tinseltown needed.
Is Tom Cruise still relevant? Will people accept Val Kilmer although he can’t talk? Are fans coming back for a memory they first encountered decades ago? Every question got a resounding yes. But the most important question was a note no one in the theaters was asking.
Will people still appreciate the art of real moviemaking instead of the science of CGI? There are more than 1.2 billion reasons to prove they will.
Something about me? I have been a nerdy cinephile for as long as I can remember. Putting the two together is living my best life. That notwithstanding, I was born to express, not to impress, so I blog because I don't have friends. In other news, I like hashtags because they look like waffles, prefer my puns intended, and I always give 100% unless I'm donating blood. Thanks for reading.
This article was edited by Zach Smith.