It’s summer and the sheer amount of cash being generated on a non-holiday weekday is clearly showing that.
In the wake of scoring the best Memorial Day opening of all time at the domestic box office with $160.5M, Paramount/Skydance’s Top Gun: Maverick didn’t let up yesterday grossing $15.8M. While that’s the third best Tuesday in May stateside after Disney/Marvel’s Avengers: Infinity War ($23.4M; May 1, 2018) and The Avengers ($17.6M, May 8, 2012), it’s easily the best Tuesday in May for a non-Marvel movie; the comic book franchise continually dominating the month. Top Gun 2‘s Tuesday is also ahead of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, that pic making $12.6M on May 10. In regards to the previous biggest Tuesday in May for a non-Marvel movie, that belonged to Disney’s Aladdin with $12M on May 28, 2019.
Top Gun 2‘s Tuesday was 53% off its Memorial Day Monday of $33.8M.
The running total for the Joseph Kosinski directed, Tom Cruise movie stands at $176.3M through yesterday. Today, on the sequel’s sixth day of release, it will beat the original 1986 movie’s lifetime domestic total of $180.258M. Top Gun: Maverick just needs to clear $3.94M today in order to fly past its first installment.
As we mentioned yesterday, Top Gun 2 outstripped Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End for the 4-day Memorial Day opening record, the latter having made $153M (with previews). However, on a 3-day basis, At World’s End is ahead of Top Gun 2 after rolling in the former’s $13.2M Thursday previews; $127.9M to $126.7M. The pure 3-day sans preview cash for At World’s End is $114.7M.