Late filmmaker Tony Scott’s iconic aerial action drama, Top Gun, starring Tom Cruise, was made on an estimated $15 million budget, and went on to gross $358.1 million worldwide. Over 35 years later, its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, hit the big screen, and that film became an even bigger success. While the original holds a 56% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, the 2022 sequel has a 96% critics’ score.
At the worldwide box office, the sequel grossed a massive $1.497 billion, which is $1.139 billion more, or roughly 4.18 times its predecessor. However, in terms of earnings-to-budget performance, the original takes the lead. While the second installment earned 8.46 times its $177 million budget, the first film delivered a staggering 23.87 times its budget.
As many fans may already know, both Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick were re-released on May 13, 2026, for one week. Let’s take a look at how much the two films would need to earn to take the franchise’s combined theatrical profit past the $1.5 billion milestone.
Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick – Budget, Global Earnings & Break-Even (Estimated)
Here are the worldwide earnings (per Box Office Mojo data), budgets, and estimated break-even points (using the 2.5x multiplier rule) of the two Top Gun films.
Top Gun
- Budget: $15 million
- Worldwide Total: $358.1 million
- Break-Even: $37.5 million
Top Gun: Maverick
- Budget: $177 million
- Worldwide Total: $1.497 billion
- Break-Even: $442.5 million
Combined Theatrical Profit (Estimated)
Based on the above figures, Top Gun generated an estimated box office surplus of $320.6 million, and its sequel, Top Gun: Maverick, generated roughly $1.055 billion in theatrical profit. So, the combined estimated theatrical profit of the two films is $1.376 billion.
How Far From $1.5 Billion Combined Theatrical Profit?
This indicates that, to reach the combined $1.5 billion in theatrical profit, the two films would need to earn $124 million worldwide during their 2026 re-release. However, due to the relatively limited scope of a re-release, it appears unlikely that the franchise can close this gap and achieve the $1.5 billion profit milestone. That said, the final verdict will become clear in the coming days.
What’s Top Gun & Top Gun: Maverick All About?
The 1986 film Top Gun features Tom Cruise as Maverick, a talented yet reckless Navy pilot who gets a golden chance to train at the elite Top Gun school for the best fighter pilots. When the tragic death of his best friend shakes him to the core, Maverick must find a way to overcome his grief and prove his mettle in a high-stakes aerial combat mission.
In the 2022 sequel, Tom Cruise reprises his role as the courageous U.S. Navy aviator and is set more than thirty years after the events shown in the first film. The underlying plot revolves around how Maverick is assigned the task of training a group of Top Gun graduates for a dangerous mission and how he deals with his past demons.
Stay tuned to Koimoi for more box office updates!
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