Let’s just get this out of the way: Top Gun Maverick is one of the most important and successful movies we’ll ever discuss on this website.
Not only has this movie knocked out every other Memorial Day Weekend release so that it is now the top MDW box office success of all time. But up until this weekend, it was debatable just how big this movie was going to be. It certainly had much riding on it. Yesterday, Manu Lopez did a very good job of laying out not only why this movie is important but also set a 55% hold as a threshold for success.
Top Gun Maverick is an important film because it’s yet another highly successful box office winner that throws away the Hollywood playbook we’ve been seeing for a few years. The legacy character is strong and confident instead of forlorn and usurped. Identity groups and demographics have almost no part in the script. There are no postmodern insertions of gender theory. It’s just a solid, straightforward action movie about heroism.
Of course, we now know that the analysts were utterly wrong and instead of a big dip like many were predicting, Top Gun Maverick is holding on in a way that previously was unbelievable. In fact, the film has only dropped 33% in its second weekend! That is astounding, completely and totally astounding.
From Variety:
The studio is projecting an $84.5 million haul through Sunday, a stunning 33% dive from its $124 million three-day opening. A soft decline like that would be a superlative achievement, marking the smallest drop in domestic box office history for a film that opened above $100 million. To compare, recent high grossers like “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” and “The Batman” fell 67% and 50%, respectively, in their sophomore outings.
I suppose that means we should all consider this movie a multi record-breaker that we simply do not know where the ceiling might be. And given that the movie is unashamedly pro-America, pro-hero, and pro-confidence. This is a return to the hero archetype from the last decades before postmodernism came into being and all of our legacy characters had to be diminished. Maverick isn’t a weakling, Maverick is every bit as awesome and cool as he was the last time you saw him almost forty years ago. Racial injustice and sexual orientation aren’t a major part of the movie. Instead, this is about the individual. This is about knowing how much to protect someone rather than let them fly.
So this is a hugely successful film, but why is it so important? The reason is a line you might recall from another film: “show me the money.”
We all know that movies often copycat earlier movies that were greatly successful. Movie studios and production companies are very interested in figuring out where audiences are and what they can do to capitalize on things they perceive to be hot. So what has been hot lately? Spider-Man No Way Home was hot, hot, hot. Top Gun Maverick is hot hot hot. Guess what is not not not? Crowds showed up to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness in droves. Then the crowd levels crashed — it had one of the worst drops of all modern Marvel movies, if not the worst, and that is a continuing trend with recent Disney-led Marvel movies. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is also another huge winner this year. The Batman is less so but still something studios can look to for signals of what works.
Eventually, studios are going to have to return to the Top Gun Maverick formula. There are hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars on the line if they choose to continue with the strategy they’ve adopted since about 2016. It’s ultimately a failed experiment. Top Gun Maverick proves it. Audiences are there and their wallets are ready if studios simply follow Top Gun, Spider-Man, Batman, Sonic the Hedgehog, etc. If studios follow Disney, a company that has dropped from the fifth-highest perceived global corporation to the bottom-half in just three years, let them have at it. But just like Obi-Wan Kenobi is failing, so too is Top Gun rising. If studios want to succeed, I know who they’re going to be chasing in the years ahead.
And that’s great news for all of us.
Now put those Taiwan patches back on all your leather jackets.
For all the latest news that should be fun, keep reading That Park Place! As always, drop a comment down below.
Following the Top Gun Maverick formula is pointless without Tom Cruise there smacking idiot executives into order. Sequels which are better than the originals are extremely rare and difficult to make, so good luck to any studio head who thinks they can make their own version of Top Gun Maverick .
Rumor is Johnny Depp might return to Pirates 6. Surely his defamation lawsuit win is a big factor. Depp is still a big star.
Didn’t Depp testify that he’s not appearing in another PoTC movie ever again? Wouldn’t he be guilty of perjury if he appears in PoTC 6? Don’t think he’ll want to appear in it to play second fiddle to other characters anyway so it is a long shot for them to integrate him somehow.
No, because this rumor is Disney changing it’s mind, not anything that Johnny Depp done except for winning his defamation lawsuit. Johnny can still refuse.
The power of folklore! This is beyond domestic politics too because the International hold is very good (I believe better than the domestic one). The movie clicked for people. (Including the left).
Doctor Strange 2 was meh – to be honest – the treatment of Wanda is horrendous. After first viewing, I wanted to be done with it, but saw it 3 times (have AMC A-List) because of America Chavez/moms (ME countries restricted it). If DSMOM was extraordinary, my viewing would have been a lot. If many think the same as me..not surprising it will not reach a billion. However, DSMOM did make a profit; yet TGM will be a bigger hit and far more profitable (and it deserves it).
Anyway, there are many variables as to why movies clicked with people and did not, and if the studios wish to know why, then focus groups, etc are important. It’s beyond a formula, it’s trusting the narrative, (plus excellent editing, etc). And yes, Taiwan patches should be added, especially because China declined the movie.
The year is only half way over. Maybe at the conclusion, Disney may be on top, yet I agree with you that the era of them being presumptious needs to end.
Hey that’s great, but I don’t trust you or WDWPro anymore to be honest ir objective about this culture war crap, Manu Lopez. You want Obi-Wan to fail. I understand wanting Lucasfilm and their racism marketing op to fail, but that’s something else. Obi-Wan doesn’t deserve the coverage you and other Fandom Menace sources like BoundingIntoComics are giving it: dishonest and exaggerated towards the most bad-faith assessment.
I think the racism op is meant to hurt the Obi-Wan show. There are people within Lucasfilm who want it to fail, or don’t care about it. But the people making the show who do care and are doing a good job.
What in the world?
Didn’t this website just have a mostly positive review of the third episode from Lorn Conner? If you are enjoying the series, great… but there’s no grand conspiracy against anything on this website. If you’re angry that Stranger Things and Top Gun Maverick are far more popular, take it up with society.
Didn’t you publish an article talking about how modern Star Wars is dead? I’ll also point you to Manu Lopez’s recent article alleging a critical lore error regarding the Obi-Wan show, which completely misread the TheWrap article it was quoting.
Yes, and it is dead. Nielsen ratings are coming…
I think “being dead” and “3rd place” are two different things. It doesn’t change that two of your authors on this site either misrepresent what was said in a news article about the show, or misremembered dialogue from the show itself. Both I can accept are unintended errors, but if you’re not willing to correct them, then I’m less inclined to trust your editorials for starters.
We can disagree on what “dead” means, but I think having your competition triple you in searches is good enough for me. I define “dead” in this way as unsustainable. You can’t run hundred million budgets to be beaten soundly by your competition. You can’t sit without a single movie scheduled for production while your streaming ratings also decline. That’s dead.
https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=now%207-d&geo=US&q=%2Fg%2F11qpsdzw80,%2Fg%2F11j2vvpd0t
As for authors “misrepresenting” or “misrembering,” it is clear to me that there are two points of view that I can easily see. Manu believes it’s silly that Kenobi wouldn’t know Darth Vader lives. The other side disagrees. That’s the crux. Right now there is going to be plenty of consternation out of Star Wars fans — the franchise is greatly diminished, it has been turned into a tool for social justice campaigns, and people are frustrated. I suspect things will get more contentious.
I think it’s too early to call it dead. If it’s still moving, it isn’t.
On the point of misrepresenting: Manu claimed that TheWrap article said Joby didn’t know whether Obi-Wan knew that Anakin was Vader. He blew his top over that misreading. Other commenters besides myself pointed out this was false, and that Joby’s actual question was in the article title: Did Obi-Wan know that Vader was alive? Manu claims the comics make it so that it’s impossible to not know Vader is alive. Considering he misread the article he based his own on, I find his follow-up conclusion dubious. Did Obi-Wan not exile himself on a backwater Outer Rim planet where the Old Republic didn’t exist? Why would it be any different with the Empire? Keep it mind we haven’t seen any Stormtroopers there as of yet, so as far as we know, the Inquisitors were the first Imperial presence to set foot on Tatooine before ANH.
On the point of misremembering, Lorn Connor in his partly positive review of Ep3 made a criticism about the encounter b/w Ben and Leia & the Stormtroopers. He said it was “immersion-breaking” because they said they were looking for “A Jedi and a girl” and yet didn’t suspect either Ben or Leia. I watched the episode again and confirmed on the article that this was incorrect; they only said “we’re looking for a Jedi.” Nothing about a girl. He then made a point about how they couldn’t recognize Ben was wearing Jedi robes, to which I countered that these are not Clone troopers. These Stormtroopers most likely never saw the Clone Wars, and even if they did, the chances of them seeing a Jedi would have been low anyways. He has yet to respond.
I’m not here to defend Manu (he’s fully capable of such), but didn’t Kenobi know who the inquisitors were quite well in the first episode? Isn’t Darth Vader the head of the inquisitors?
One thing to remember, we’re discussing fantasy. Manu has a point of view, you have a point of view, Lorn has a point of view, etc. Talking in absolutes and painting different people with black and white brushes is a bit too far for me. I see why Manu thinks what he does, I see why Lorn thinks what he does. It’s okay to disagree. That’s a sign you’re reading a healthy website because you’re getting different points of view. That’s literally what we want at That Park Place. We’re not a monolith.
Why would Kenobi know who the Inquisitors were if he didn’t even know Vader was still alive? What made you think he knew about them before they arrived on Tatooine?
“One thing to remember, we’re discussing fantasy. Manu has a point of view, you have a point of view, Lorn has a point of view, etc. Talking in absolutes and painting different people with black and white brushes is a bit too far for me.”
No. You are muddying the issue. I pointed out clear errors on their parts. They have not taken the time or simply refused to address them. It’s that simple. That it’s a matter of perspective doesn’t mean no perspective is wrong or right.
“I see why Manu thinks what he does, I see why Lorn thinks what he does. It’s okay to disagree. That’s a sign you’re reading a healthy website because you’re getting different points of view. That’s literally what we want at That Park Place. We’re not a monolith.”
I care about the truth, and being fair and honest. That is what the issue is. It’s bigger than just having two opposing viewpoints on the same website. It’s about feeding a false bias that extends across websites.
I would appreciate your work to verify what is and isn’t true about what companies like Disney say if you will only hold yourselves to the same standard, and not hide behind, “It’s just a difference of opinion, man.”
Man the level of hate you have for this website is incredible. It seems like it is like a drug to you. Since they are so evil you could try just not reading their posts. I feel bad that every day you come here just to be put down. I hope you get better.. I really do and if you need help I hope you get it before these peoples opinions destroy your life.
because this website and is obssesedd with the culture war
Thank you for being the arbiter of truth. Do you only police opinion sites or can we find you protecting all of us poor souls from fox or cnn?
Its weird you bring up MOM having one of the worst second weekend drops of a marvel movie yet dont bring up no way home also having a huge second weekend drop and u say that movie is also a crowdpleasing movie like top gun maverick but maverick had a smaller drop why not mention that . Also why are u ignoring after its second weeked MOM had great holds every weekend and is going to finish around 950 million why is great for a doctor strange sequel but I guess your bias and partisanship is to strong to be objective.
You should probably watch the video where it breaks down the difference between the Maverick and MOM financials before you say things that are not supported by the numbers or are your bias and partisanship in the way?