Top Gun: Maverick Just Left Titanic In Its Wake
"Top Gun: Maverick" doesn't care that the original "Top Gun" was made in 1986 and relies heavily on its cast of young stars — as the first movie's famous volleyball scene that almost got the director fired proves. Instead, the long-awaited sequel has pulled a "Cobra Kai," and then some. "Top Gun: Maverick" is an absolutely massive success that has smashed major box office records, and critics praise it through the roof.
It looks like Pete "Maverick" Mitchell (Tom Cruise) isn't exactly done with his surprisingly successful big screen return, either. After all, the fact that "Top Gun: Maverick" has already proven its mettle as a critical and commercial juggernaut doesn't necessarily mean that it's stopped making its mark. Quite the opposite, in fact, because "Top Gun: Maverick" has now left another absolutely massive success story — namely, James Cameron's "Titanic" — in its wake. Here's what this means.
Top Gun: Maverick flies past Titanic at the domestic box office
The plane just overtook the passenger ship at the box office (per Variety). With its domestic box office haul of $662 million as of August 7, director Joseph Kosinski's "Top Gun: Maverick" has flown past Paramount Pictures's previous biggest earner, James Cameron's "Titanic." The movie already took breaking the box office to a whole new level when it became the first movie of 2022 to gross over $1 billion globally a month after its release, and it seems that the good news just keep on coming.
Interestingly, this latest development means that "Titanic" has dropped to the eighth spot on the list of most successful U.S. domestic box office releases in history, and "Top Gun: Maverick" is now presiding over the seventh place. It will be fascinating to see how high the movie manages to climb. While "Top Gun: Maverick" is clearly soaring pretty high on the box office skies, it still has its work cut out if it intends to reach the all-time top spot at the domestic box office. Still, who knows? As the "Top Gun" movies have proved time and time again, you should never underestimate Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.