‘Top Gun’ Is Tom Cruise’s Biggest Hit Ever in the U.S.

Tom Cruise is flying high.

In its second weekend in theaters, Top Gun: Maverick once again dominated the box office. Its $86 million in theaters from Friday to Sunday is the eighth-biggest second weekend in history. (For perspective: Maverick made more in its second weekend in U.S. theaters than Spider-Man: No Way Home did late last year.) Even more impressively, its ticket sales dropped just 32 percent from its opening weekend — the lowest drop by percentage of any movie in history that opened to more than $100 million in weekend grosses.

After just 10 days in theaters, Top Gun: Maverick has already grossed $291.6 million in the United States. In less than two weeks, it’s now Cruise’s biggest domestic hit ever, at least before you adjust for inflation. It was already the biggest opening weekend of his career as well.

Here are the top five biggest U.S. hits of Cruise’s career to date:

1. Top Gun: Maverick – $291.6 million
2. War of the Worlds – $234.2 million
3. Mission: Impossible — Fallout – $220.1 million
4. Mission: Impossible II – $215.4 million
5. Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol – $209.3 million

(Technically Austin Powers in Goldmember occupies that fifth spot with $213.1 million, but Cruise’s role in that is basically a cameo.)

Internationally, Top Gun: Maverick currently ranks as Cruise’s eighth-biggest hit, behind five of the six Mission: Impossible films (Mission: Impossible III is the only one that didn’t become a massive smash worldwide), War of the Worlds, and, improbably, The Last Samurai. On its current trajectory, Maverick will definitely pass a bunch of those movies. Whether it becomes Cruise’s biggest hit worldwide seems a bit more unlikely. (It would need to pass $787.1 million worldwide and it currently sits at $416.6 million.)

Then again, the movie has terrific word of mouth, as evidenced by the fact that it had that record-selling small drop from weekend to weekend. The whole film is designed as a throwback to the 1980s and to the era of great practical special effects in blockbusters. It would be pretty fitting if like one of those old hits, it just stayed at the top of the box-office charts for months on end.