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Tom Cruise remains in the air – not in a bad way, though – as Top Gun: Maverick has stayed at the top of the box office.
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, the 1986 aviation epic’s sequel is ranked No. 1 at the box office for the second consecutive weekend, after the best debut of Cruise’s career last week.
The movie gained an extra sum of $86 million all over North America this weekend, taking its total to $291.6 million, as per a Comscore report. Meanwhile, it surged to $548.6 million at the global box office.
Cruise made a reprisal of his role as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the action film, marking his all-time biggest domestic theatrical opening. The movie gained a whopping sum of $156 million during its weekend release, breaking Cruise’s 2005 sci-fi action War of the Worlds’ record as his top opening at $64.9 million.
Kosinski was not quite aware of the enterprise he was stepping into – significantly so that he reflected the opening credit sequence to the original movie directed by Tony Scott in the homage.
“I wanted that first few minutes to just tell you, this is a Top Gun movie, we love it as much as you do,” the filmmaker said in an interview with EW.
“From there, our story goes in a very different direction, but I wanted the first few minutes to let the audience know: Don’t worry, we love it too, this is going to be a Top Gun Movie.”
Similar to Captain Mitchell coming back to the Top Gun Naval School, Kosinski elaborated, “I wanted the audience to feel like we were going back to Top Gun. It had to have that same feel, but at the same time, I knew we’d have to tell our own story, and I’d have to find a way to innovate on my own.”
Behind Top Gun in the domestic box office ranking, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness remains at its No. 2 spot, conjuring the magic and gaining an extra $9.2 million. Bob’s Burgers Movie gains an extra $4.5 million standing in third place.
Meanwhile, The Bad Guys and Downton Abbey: A New Era complete the top five list with an additional $3.3 million and $3 million, respectively.
Opinions expressed by Artist Weekly contributors are their own.