After a year in which younger adults have been the kingmakers at the box office, Paramount/Skydance’s “Top Gun: Maverick” has become one of the biggest hits of the pandemic era thanks in large part to Gen X moviegoers who saw the original “Top Gun” back in the 1980s.
With a four-day estimated opening of $160.5 million, “Top Gun: Maverick” has passed “Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End” for the highest Memorial Day weekend opening ever. Even “Maverick’s” three-day opening of $126.7 million ranks fourth-highest among all films released in the U.S. since theaters reopened.
And that’s especially impressive when you consider this: Paramount’s demographics reports show that a staggering 55% of the opening audience was over the age of 35.