Top Gun Maverick box office: Tom Cruise film is actor's career best with $51 mn at ticket windows on opening day

Tom Cruise's latest offing Top Gun: Maverick could easily be his career best. The film which has opened at over 4,000 locations in US alone is projected to earn $150 million at the box office over the weekend.

As per reports, the sequel to the 1986 Top Gun, which catapulted Cruise to fame, drew a massive $51.8 million on its opening day, including $19.3 million in Thursday previews. If Cruise's latest film manages to earn $150 million over the weekends, it will easily be a new record debut for Cruise, whose previous best was $64.8 million opening for 2005’s War of the Worlds.

Interestingly, Top Gun Maverick's opening digits is a record for Paramount Pictures, reported Variety, according to which it has outdone the $51.2 million opening day of 2010’s Iron Man 2.

The film, which was originally slated to release in the summer of 2022 got pushed back multiple times due to the COVID-19 pandemic. And while Paramount sold quite a few movies to streaming platforms over this period, Cruise was vocally adamant that Maverick was not for sale.

Top Gun sees Tom Cruise as Pete Maverick, a celebrated distinguished fighter pilot with over 30 years of experience, who gets called back to the Navy programmed Top Gun to train a group of pilots who, within record time, must attack and destroy an enemy base designed for nuclear programme. However, the batch of new pilots includes Lt Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller) aka Rooster, the son of his former wingman and best friend Goose, who had tragically died during the events of Top Gun.

As per Zoom review, "Top Gun: Maverick works because it feels real - from the gritty action sequences claustrophobically constructed within the cockpit to Cruise's effortless charisma and oozing style, all make for the film to be a must watch for the summer."