Tom Cruise, one of the top movie stars in Hollywood, is about to have the biggest opening weekend of his career.
« Top Gun: Maverick » — the sequel to the 1986 blockbuster — lands in theaters for the Memorial Day weekend. Cruise is reprising his role as Pete « Maverick » Mitchell, the cocky fighter pilot who felt the need for speed 36 years ago. The Paramount film — which has Cruise’s Maverick teaching a new class of Top Gun recruits — is expected to make roughly $80 million for its three-day opening. Some experts have the film making closer to $100 million. That will easily make « Maverick » the highest-grossing debut in Cruise’s 40 year career, overtaking « War of the Worlds », which opened to $64.8 million in 2005. Cruise and Paramount are already on target for a big weekend, with the film making $19.2 million in its preview showings. Paramount said that represents its highest-grossing preview in the company’s history and the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend preview ever.
« Tom Cruise is one of the few true movie stars left in the business », Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst at Comscore (SCOR), told CNN Business. « His name on the marquee means something to audiences who have come to trust that his films will be worth every dollar of that movie ticket purchase. »
Cruise Control
It might seem odd that none of Cruise’s films have had an opening in excess of $65 million, but that’s because Cruise is the Hank Aaron of the movies — a reliable and consistent hit maker — who has notched more than $10 billion at the global box office since 1981 despite his films never coming close to a $100 million opening.
