Top Gun: Maverick becomes Tom Cruise’s highest-grossing box office debut as it passes $100m

Tom Cruise’s new film Top Gun: Maverick has earned an estimated $151m (£119m) in North America for the four-day Memorial Day weekend.

This film is Cruise’s highest-grossing debut, and his first film to surpass $100m (£79m) on opening weekend in a career spanning 40 years.

The new action movie – which sees Cruise as the Navy’s top pilotconfronting the ghosts of his past – is a sequel to the original 1986 movie, in which he also starred.

After its original premiere date of 24 June 2020 was delayed nearly two years by the pandemic, the film was released in cinemas on 24 May.

David A Gross, who runs strategic intelligence and consulting service Franchise Entertainment Research, called the film’s three-day figure “outstanding.”

“The source material remains strong, the execution is excellent, and Tom Cruise makes it work impeccably well,” he told Reuters.

The Independent’s critic Clarrise Loughrey gave Top Gun: Maverick a four out of five stars review.

“The film is a true legacy sequel,” she wrote. “Top Gun: Maverick really isn’t packed with the kind of craven nostalgia that we’re used to these days. It’s smarter, subtler, and wholly more humanistic.”

When the Mission Impossible star was asked whether he had considered debuting the sequel on streaming platforms – as the pandemic continued pushing back its release date – Cruise insisted that he had never considered it.

“That was not going to happen ever,” Cruise he said. “I make movies for the big screen.”