Top Gun 2: Maverick

[thecolorsblend]

Much deserved. An aspect of the movie I believe satisfies audiences is the feelgood conclusion. There are high stakes and the characters encounter emotional obstacles, but they are all balanced out and the tone doesn't become overbearing. It's a celebration of simply getting on with the job and working together. It's a retro film in spirit, right down to the opening and closing credits. I'm a particular fan of the end character title cards which older movies like Predator and The Blues Brothers had. Maverick is the right film at the right time and it feels like cinema has truly been relaunched again.

I read somewhere that the movie has attracted a LOT of repeat business.

That's any billion dollar film's bread and butter right there. Because it's hard enough to convince moviegoers to buy one ticket. But if your movie is good enough to convince them to buy multiple tickets, then you've officially discovered the Holy Grail.

The estimations indicate that something like 5% of the audience bought a second ticket to the movie... and then they brought at least one friend with them.

This same basic phenomenon went on with Titanic, The Dark Knight and JOKER, where repeat viewings gave those films major legs. People loved those movies, evangelized others to see them and bought multiple tickets themselves.

[The Dark Knight]

I'll be interested to see if Top Gun: Maverick's box office momentum leads in to Dead Reckoning next year.

This image was released by Chris McQuarrie on Twitter:



This is next level stunt work, and if these two films are Tom's last hurrah for the franchise he's going all out. I'm not sure if he can crack the billion mark again (Top Gun has the patriotic military angle which is highly appealing to people), but it can still go close. The model remains non woke escapism and practical daredevilry.

[thecolorsblend]

These numbers are just astounding to me. Maverick is #3 at the US box office! It's outgrossing stuff that came out RECENTLY.

I never predicted $1 billion worldwide. But I certainly never predicted legs like this.

[The Dark Knight]

Maverick was predictably snubbed at the Oscars in favor of movies barely anybody knows or will remember. Top Gun is the fan favorite and will linger in the public consciousness going forward for how it made people feel. Tom wasn't at the ceremony because he's busy filming Dead Reckoning Part Two, after Part One's test screening had audiences "losing their minds" with "insane reactions" to this "complete thrill ride." Tom has been on a solid run for a long time now, but get ready for Part One to consolidate the phenomenon of Maverick.

[thecolorsblend]

Maverick was predictably snubbed at the Oscars in favor of movies barely anybody knows or will remember. Top Gun is the fan favorite and will linger in the public consciousness going forward for how it made people feel. Tom wasn't at the ceremony because he's busy filming Dead Reckoning Part Two, after Part One's test screening had audiences "losing their minds" with "insane reactions" to this "complete thrill ride." Tom has been on a solid run for a long time now, but get ready for Part One to consolidate the phenomenon of Maverick.

Considering his absence from the ceremony (along with his own history of getting ignored), I guess Cruise wasn't expecting anything else. To be fair, TGM isn't the type of thing the Academy will usually give the artistic awards to anyway.

The movie won popular and industry acclaim and I think it should technically be acknowledged as the highest grossing film of 2022. But even if Avatar squeaks through on that, TGM still outgrossed three separate Marvel films (by 2:1 in the case of Thor), which is a pretty big achievement all by itself. TGM also easily fended off Jurassic World.

By any standard, TGM was the audience's favorite 2022 film and it honored the original film's legacy in a way that most people never expected.

An Oscar might've been nice. But there's still a lot to be proud of the way things are right now. Plus, the upcoming MI movies have gotten one hell of a boost from TGM.

[The Dark Knight]

Film is psychology as much as anything. The opening montage with the original theme music and font, and Danger Zone jumping in like a shot of adrenaline, was the perfect start to the movie. Others have commented that the introduction really set the scene for what was going to follow.

On this subject, Christopher McQuarrie spoke about the impact of music on the Light the Fuse podcast:

The first cut of Rogue Nation... the audience in the first tests were saying it felt like the movie had five endings. And the response to those notes was, 'Well, you gotta cut out some of the business at the end.' And Tom said, 'No no no, just listen to the music. Every scene with the temp score, it's, duh-duh! And it feels like the movie's over.' And he said to Joe Kramer, 'Just write a 20 minute piece that plays through the entire last two reels, like it's one sequence.' And the [test] score shot up, and all the notes went away.

These people aren't mercenaries, they know movies and what works.