Despite being released almost three months ago, legacy sequel Top Gun: Maverick continues to reach new heights and recently surpassed the Marvel epic Avengers: Infinity War at the domestic box office. Now the sixth-highest-grossing movie ever in North America, Top Gun: Maverick producer Jerry Bruckheimer has explained why he believes the action drama has managed to overtake the superhero offerings of Marvel and DC.
“The audiences love the Marvel, they love the DC stuff. They're beautifully made by really talented people. Sometimes you want to see something that's real, and that's what Top Gun gave us… These aviators are out there protecting our country right now, flying around the world, and you're taking a ride with them. You're seeing what they do, you're seeing what their life is like, and the trials and tribulations that they have to go through. You're actually experiencing it with our actors.”
Speaking with EW, Bruckheimer first praised the efforts Marvel and DC, before reasoning that it is the reality of Top Gun: Maverick that has so overwhelmingly appealed to audiences. By far the most impressive element of the Top Gun follow-up is the awe-inspiring aerial majesty of the fighter jets, something that was largely achieved for real. So, as Bruckheimer explains it, rather than the CGI magic of Marvel, with the producer adding that audiences "have been seeing so much CGI,” it is the tangibility of Top Gun: Maverick that has led to such massive success.
And what a success it has been. Since its release back in May, Top Gun: Maverick has been a monumental critical and financial triumph, grossing over $1.4 billion worldwide and thus becoming the highest-grossing movie of 2022. An even bigger surprise is that Top Gun: Maverick is now the highest-grossing outing for Hollywood icon Tom Cruise, with the sequel now taking over Avengers: Infinity War’s 2018 domestic gross of $678 million. While Top Gun: Maverick still has some way to go before taking over Infinity War’s global box office of just over $2 billion, if anyone can do it, it’s Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell.
Jerry Bruckheimer Thinks Tom Cruise Should Win an Oscar for Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick picks up after more than thirty years since the release of the first Top Gun, and follows Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise), who has been of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators for just as long. Feeling that he is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot, Maverick suddenly finds himself training a detachment of graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen. A mission that sees Maverick encounter Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose.”
Not only has Top Gun: Maverick rivaled the MCU at the box office, Jerry Bruckheimer believes that this success should carry over to the Academy, with the producer stating that Tom Cruise deserves an Oscar for his efforts in bringing Maverick back to the big screen. "Nobody cares more, nobody works harder than Tom,” he said. “You look at his performance, it's deceiving, because it's so good, it's so natural. It's something that audiences understand and realize, and we hope the Academy will feel the same way."
Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick will be released for streaming on August 23, 2022, followed by the 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray, and DVD releases on November 1, 2022.