Jerry Bruckheimer and the Academy Awards don’t feel like a natural fit, but after earning his first Best Picture nomination for Top Gun: Maverick, the producer thinks it not only has box office machismo but has had the power to bring people together.
On the mass appeal of Top Gun: Maverick, Jerry Bruckheimer said, “It was the first picture for an older audience that brought people back to theaters and in droves around the world…We showed the world that a movie can be a worldwide hit and still go on streaming to be number one on Labor Day on VOD. It set a record for streaming. It shows you can have good entertainment to watch in a theater and go home and watch it and buy it. Sales of the DVD were through the roof. You can’t tell how many people went to see the movie more than once. Maverick captured the zeitgeist of the world. It’s not red state or blue state. It united everyone around the world.”
The concept of unification could be a stretch, but the box office numbers of Top Gun: Maverick are no exaggeration. To date, it has earned nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, further solidifying Bruckheimer as one of the highest-grossing producers ever. In addition to Top Gun: Maverick, Jerry Bruckheimer’s role in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise, the Bad Boys movies and more put him in the ranks of Marvel’s Kevin Feige and Star Wars’ Kathleen Kennedy. Bruckheimer recently spoke about a potential sixth entry in the Pirates series, saying, “I think we’re getting very close on that one, too. We have a very good script. We developed two of them…” Bruckheimer is also interested in another Bad Boys movie, even encouraging the return of Will Smith.
Summing up Top Gun: Maverick, Jerry Bruckheimer praised movies as both entertainment and a collaborative craft. “You forget about everything and feel great when you walk out. That’s what we do. We showed the world what Hollywood can do when technicians and writers and actors do it right.”
How do you feel about Jerry Bruckheimer’s comments about Top Gun: Maverick? Did it truly “unify” separate groups of moviegoers? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.