Hollywood, Don’t Take the Wrong Lessons From ‘Top Gun: Maverick’

variety.com:

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media ReporterWith “Top Gun: Maverick,” Tom Cruise pulled off a seemingly impossible mission: Getting moviegoers to leave their house and pay money to watch a sequel to a 36-year-old film.The follow-up to 1986’s “Top Gun” jetted past box office expectations, collecting $154 million over the long Memorial Day weekend in North America and $248 million worldwide.

COVID times or not, those are impressive ticket sales, as well as a career-best start for Cruise. What’s particularly notable is that they were racked up by a film that doesn’t involve superheroes, intense CGI (yes, Cruise is really flying those jets), lightsabers or a rogue Tyrannosaurus.Of course, nostalgia worked as a superpower for “Top Gun: Maverick.” But sentimentality alone did not translate to stratospheric ticket sales.

Rapturous reviews (it has a 97% on Rotten Tomatoes) and strong word of mouth (it landed a coveted “A+” CinemaScore) were integral in getting butts in seats.

In other words, audience members — and not just those who loved the first film — really liked the latest “Top Gun.” Many people, including Variety’s chief film critic Peter Debruge, admitted to be shocked by how much they liked “Maverick.” In his review, he wrote, “Hardly anything in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ will surprise you, except how well it does nearly all the things audiences want and expect it to do.” Megan Colligan, the president of Imax Entertainment, says “often in Hollywood, people get excited about the prospect of making money and think about the script later.” But “Top Gun: Maverick,” she says, was not one of those instances. “This is one of those where the team was super protective about making sure the movie was going to be great before [greenlighting.