Steven Spielberg Tells Tom Cruise: You Saved Hollywood’s Ass and Top Gun: Maverick Might’ve Saved the Entire Theatrical Industry.
Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise reunited at this year’s Oscar nominees luncheon, where the blockbuster filmmaker praised his “Minority Report” and “War of the Worlds” actor for saving the theatrical movie business with “Top Gun: Maverick.”
Both Spielberg and Cruise are in the running for best picture this year thanks to “The Fabelmans” and “Top Gun: Maverick,” respectively. Spielberg added, “In all honesty, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ may have saved the entire movie industry.”
“Top Gun: Maverick” is the second film to gross more than $1 billion at the worldwide box office amid the pandemic, following “Spider-Man: No Way Home.”
With a worldwide gross of $1.48 billion, “Maverick” ranks as the 11th-highest-grossing film of all time (unadjusted for inflation). The film is the fifth-highest-grossing film at the domestic box office with $718 million.
Although “Maverick” is a sequel, its success was hardly preordained. However, the sequel to 1986’s “Top Gun” became a rare old-school hit that held steady at the box office for months on word-of-mouth.
According to Paramount, repeat customers fueled “Maverick’s” momentum. By its fourth weekend in North American theaters, 16 percent of moviegoers had returned more than once, and 4 percent had returned three or more times.