EXCLUSIVE: The most highly anticipated sequel of arguably the last 36 years, Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick, is firing up its jets heading into its Memorial Day opening weekend on May 27.
We hear that exhibition is likely set to see the movie first during Paramount’s presentation at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday, April 28. No word if Cruise will be making an appearance. Theater owners already got a taste of the Joseph Kosinski directed movie back in August when Paramount showed off the pic’s 13 opening minutes, in addition to Cruise’s next big stunt in Mission: Impossible 7, which entails jumping a motorcycle off a cliff and parachuting.
In addition, Deadline understands that the global premiere of Top Gun: Maverick will be in San Diego, CA on May 4 on a retired aircraft carrier. The city is hallowed ground for the movie as much of it was shot around there. In fact, it was at San Diego Comic-Con 2019 when Cruise made a surprise appearance in Hall H to show off the first trailer to Top Gun: Maverick, the star appearing at the tail-end of Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator: Dark Fate panel.
All of this precedes the Cannes Official Screening & Tom Cruise Tribute in Cannes, France on May 18, which we previously reported.
Following that, there will be a Royal Film Performance of Top Gun: Maverick in London on Thursday, May 18. The UK premiere of the sequel marks the 72nd Royal Film Performance delivered by the charity in its near 100-year history. The Royal Film Performance is the flagship fundraiser for long-time Paramount non-profit partner, The Film and TV Charity, an organization that supports the tens of thousands of people working behind the scenes in the UK’s world-leading film and television industry.
In the sequel, after more than thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s top aviators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) is where he belongs, pushing the envelope as a courageous test pilot and dodging the advancement in rank that would ground him. When he finds himself training a detachment of Top Gun graduates for a specialized mission the likes of which no living pilot has ever seen, Maverick encounters Lt. Bradley Bradshaw (Miles Teller), call sign: “Rooster,” the son of Maverick’s late friend and Radar Intercept Officer Lt. Nick Bradshaw, aka “Goose”.
Facing an uncertain future and confronting the ghosts of his past, Maverick is drawn into a confrontation with his own deepest fears, culminating in a mission that demands the ultimate sacrifice from those who will be chosen to fly it. Top Gun: Maverick also stars Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, Charles Parnell, Bashir Salahuddin, Monica Barbaro, Jay Ellis, Danny Ramirez, Greg Tarzan Davis with Ed Harris.
The first Top Gun in 1986 made $180.2M domestic, $357.2M WW and was directed by the late Tony Scott. The soundtrack became one of the most popular ones to date, going 9x platinum in sales and winning the Oscar for Best Original Song for “Take My Breath Away” performed by Berlin. The pic was also nominated for three other Oscars including Sound, Editing, and Sound Effects Editing.