Nolte: ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ Sinks ‘Titanic,’ Guns for ‘Black Panther’

We reported last month Top Gun: Maverick beat Titanic’s $601 million first release haul. Now Top Gun: Maverick has topped Titanic’s total haul, including all three of its re-releases.

James Cameron’s Oscar-winning classic was originally released in 1997. It was then re-released in 2012, 2017, and 2020. This boosted its lifetime domestic haul by another $60 million to $659 million.

But in its first and only release, Top Gun: Maverick just jumped that $659 million by a cool three million. After 11 weeks in release, the Top Gun sequel sits at $662.5 million and counting.

Worldwide is a different story. Top Gun: Maverick has earned a startling $1.35 billion. But even more startling is Titanic’s $2.2 billion worldwide take.

Leftists are having a very hard time accepting the smashing success of non-woke, pro-America, masculine 'Top Gun: Maverick." https://t.co/9xVyBZec6y

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 4, 2022

On the domestic front, Top Gun: Maverick is still going strong. After nearly three months in theaters, it still came in at number six this past weekend with $7 million. With that kind of momentum (and not much competition on the horizon), it’s more than possible this Tom Cruise smash-hit will top the $678 million accrued by Avengers: Infinity War (2018) and might very well defeat Black Panther’s (2018) $700 million.

That would put Top Gun: Maverick in the top five all-time domestic grossers behind Avatar (2009) – $760.5 million; Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021) – $804 million; Avengers: Endgame (2019) – $858 million; and Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) – $937 million.

It’s worth noting that when you adjust for inflation, that scrambles everything, and Gone with the Wind is still the all-time king with a $3.7 billion worldwide gross.

It’s no coincidence that the two biggest movies of the last two years — Top Gun: Maverick and Spider-Man: No Way Home — are not only non-woke but over-performed.

Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster, “Top Gun: Maverick” has been given a thumb’s up and a solid ’10’ from an unlikely source after President of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro took to social media early Thursday to offer his applause for the box office blockbuster. https://t.co/6OfUpz55IL

— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) June 17, 2022

Not to take anything away from either movie — both of which I enjoyed a lot — but I don’t see them clearing those kinds of numbers in a normal environment.

There’s no doubt in my mind that this oppressive, anti-fun, smug, off-putting, divisive, woke nonsense boosted both titles to astronomical box office success. Pretty much everything else out there sucks. Maverick and No Way Home, however, are outliers. Unlike everything else, they are a great time at the movies: wildly entertaining, inspiring, and exciting.

People miss having fun at the movies. One of the joys of life is a great time at the movies. Woke has destroyed that almost entirely, boosting non-woke movies in a way they might not have succeeded otherwise. 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC. Follow his Facebook Page here.