HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHT: Top Gun Maverick is Tom Cruise's career best

Tom Cruise is one of the biggest stars in the world and now has hit a new milsetone with his first $100 million opening weekend with “Top Gun: Maverick.” With several critics saying this one is even better than the iconic first film, "Maverick" earned an estimated $124 million in ticket sales, Paramount Pictures said Sunday. Its worldwide total is $248 million.

It’s a Mach 3 start for a film that still has the three-day Memorial Day holiday to generate even more cash. According to projections and estimates, by Monday’s close, “Top Gun: Maverick” will likely have earned over $150 million.

The sequel to the late Tony Scott's “Top Gun,” which was released in 1986, was originally slated to open in the summer of 2020. The pandemic got in the way of that plan and it was delayed several times.

Directed by Joseph Kosinski, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and co-produced and co-financed by Skydance, the sequel reportedly cost $152 million to make.

Maverick is a unique modern-day aerial combat film that combines the past with the present and the future. After more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as

a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose”.

Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it.

Reviews have been stellar, too, with the film notching a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences, who were 58% male, gave it an A+ CinemaScore, according to exit polls. Our own HOLLYWOOD SPOTLIGHT review will give a full evaluation and insight into why the film has hit such a nerve so be sure to check it out.

Written by Your Movie-Lovin' Brother