Legacy sequels have been a mixed bag in the last five years, treading a line between pure fan service and alienating “reimaginings.” In the middle of it all, one blockbuster defied the odds to become one of the biggest movies of the decade as a sequel over 35 years in the making. If anyone was going to be able to make a belated sequel work with their untiring dedication to making the most realistic action movies, then Tom Cruise was the man to do it. While Cruise has seen some struggles with his Mission: Impossible sequels, battling astronomical budgets in a time when audiences don’t always turn up to theaters to rake in a return, his return as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick overcame several obstacles to become a box office success that blew away all expectations. Now, the movie that just won’t go away is dominating Netflix as well as still soaring on its permanent home at Paramount+.
Since being released in 2022, after a substantial delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick has been the highest grossing movie of the year ($1.5 billion worldwide), a critical success, and a constant presence at the top of the Paramount+ chart for over four years. The movie still sitting at number three in the Paramount global chart after all this time, but more impressively it has now also climbed to number two on the US Netflix chart. This kind of success doesn’t happen to just any movie with even the most popular streaming arrivals having a short shelf life as they are constantly being replaced with newer titles all fighting for attention. Yet the renewed streaming success of Top Gun: Maverick sees the film continue to draw in new viewers, whether discovering it for the first time or returning for another flight with Cruise’s adrenaline-fueled pilot.
Top Gun: Maverick Is a Nostalgia-Driven Thrill Ride That Refuses to Land
Top Gun: Maverick was originally set to be released in 2021, but Cruise’s dedication to making cinematic events saw the film being pushed back several times. For many movies, this was a kiss of death but somehow it only seemed to prolong the anticipation among fans, and when it finally opened it hit Mach 10 in record time. There were several reasons for this, not all of it down to Cruise’s star power – which it should be said is second to none when comes to action blockbusters. The movie was a huge nostalgic draw to those who first saw Cruise’s original movie in 1986 at the height of his first wave of box office success, capturing the same thrilling aerial action sequences, the drama and adding an emotional payoff with the inclusion of a cameo from Val Kilmer as Tom “Iceman’ Kazansky.
However, where Top Gun: Maverick really excelled was easy to see when checking out the spectacular reviews of the movie from both critics and audiences. Critically, the film scored a hugely impressive 96% on Rotten Tomatoes but that was nothing compared to the near-perfect 99% rating from audiences. How did Top Gun: Maverick avoid the trap so many other legacy sequels fall into? As many reviewers commented, Cruise’s return as Maverick is one that perfectly evokes memories of the original movie but does not get lost in the past and makes a new story built on its legacy. It is also a movie that people don’t just skip over because they have seen it once, and its rewatch appeal is what has been keeping it flying high on streaming for the last four years. With Cruise heading back to another of his 80s hits, Days of Thunder, the real question is whether he can succeed in performing the same trick twice and deliver the same record-breaking blockbuster on the ground as he did in the air. If not, there is always Top Gun 3 getting ready to taxi down the runway too.
Is Top Gun: Maverick one of the best sequels of all time? It has certainly proven to be one of the most enduring movies of the last decade, but is it on your watchlist? Let us know in the comments.