‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Takes Down ‘Avengers: Infinity War’ as Sixth-Highest Grossing Movie in Domestic Box Office History

Rebecca Rubin
·3 min read
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The milestones keep rolling in. After 13 weeks on the big screen, “Top Gun: Maverick” has collected $683 million in North America, enough to overtake Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” ($678 million) as the sixth-highest grossing movie in domestic box office history.

It’s an especially impressive benchmark because 2018’s every-hero-but-the-kitchen-sink adventure “Avengers: Infinity War” had a little help in building up anticipation. It served as part one (2019’s “Endgame” was part two) of Marvel’s epic culmination of more than 20 movies — most of which were box office juggernauts in their own right — over 10 years. Talk about hype.

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Sure, “Maverick” had Tom Cruise, a box office hero in his own right. But moviegoers hadn’t felt the need for speed in more than 30 years; the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” was far from a guaranteed hit.

Yet, thanks to stellar word-of-mouth and repeat customers, “Maverick” continues to defy the odds. And there’s a chance the movie will continue to fly higher on box office charts. Can the “Top Gun” follow-up take down 2018’s blockbuster “Black Panther” and its $700.4 million tally to crack the top five domestic grossers of all-time?

It would require a bit of endurance at this point, but it’s certainly not out of the question. Even though “Top Gun 2” lands on home entertainment on Tuesday, the movie is likely to continue selling tickets in theaters because there’s not a ton of competition on the horizon. It’ll be fairly desolate at the box office until November, when “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” opens in theaters. Then again, Disney is likely to re-release the first “Black Panther” in anticipation of the follow-up, which could propel the original’s grosses even higher. But “Maverick” is no stranger to overcoming the impossible.

Internationally, “Top Gun: Maverick” has generated $720 million — and that’s without playing in China or Russia, two major overseas markets. Outside of North America, top-earning territories include the United Kingdom ($98.5 million), Japan ($85.5 million), Korea ($64.6 million), Australia ($62.2 million) and France ($54.7 million). Globally, it’s the 12th-highest grossing movie ever with $1.403 billion to date.

“Top Gun: Maverick” debuted on the big screen in May, setting a new Memorial Day weekend opening record with $160.5 million. The film stayed in the top five on weekend charts for 10 weeks, dropping to sixth place in its 11th weekend before miraculously returning to the No. 2 spot in its 12th outing. “This. Does. Not. Happen,” Jeff Bock, a media analyst with Exhibitor Relations, wrote on Twitter.

Among the film’s numerous records, “Maverick” is Cruise’s first movie to surpass $100 million in a single weekend and his first to reach $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The movie star is being rewarded handsomely for rejuvenating the nation’s cinemas. By the time “Maverick” is out of theaters and lands on Paramount+, Cruise is expected to pocket at least $100 million from ticket sales, his salary and his eventual cut of home entertainment rentals and streaming revenue.

Joseph Kosinski directed the long-delayed “Top Gun: Maverick,” which picks up decades after the original and follows Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell as he trains a young group of aviators for a dangerous mission. The cast includes Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Jon Hamm, Jennifer Connelly and Val Kilmer, who played Iceman in the first “Top Gun.”

Updated on 8/21 to include Sunday’s ticket sales. 

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