Top Gun: Maverick soars to $19.3 million in Thursday night previews

Top Gun: Maverick is about to blow through expectations this weekend, likely exceeding the $95 million predictions I made yesterday but this is all good news for the weekend box office. In Thursday night previews, the Top Gun sequel is already soaring to massive numbers.

Top Gun: Maverick grossed $19.3 million in Thursday night previews which began at 3:00 PM. There were also “Top Gun” Tuesday showings with premium large format, Imax, and Dolby screens opening up at 7:00 PM earlier in the week. This number also has those Tuesday grosses factored in but the $19.3 million number is a preview best for Paramount Pictures and the highest-grossing Memorial Day preview in history, per Deadline.

This is also the best preview number for any Tom Cruise release as well. It bests the $6 million preview numbers of 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout and it absolutely floors me that an actor of his caliber with so many box office hits is just now breaking records like this. Industry projections have grown for the opening to hit $100 million+ and this Thursday start seems to indicate this will be the case. Anything above $64.8 million, which will definitely happen, will make Top Gun: Maverick the biggest opening of Tom Cruise’s career.

Top Gun: Maverick is already skewing towards older men, which is typical of most Tom Cruise films. Mission: Impossible – Fallout pulled in 41% of men over the age of 25 but early signs are showing that the male under 25 crowd is responding as well as older women who have likely been fans of Tom Cruise since he first took flight in Top Gun back in 1986. This is definitely going to be one to watch as the weekend moves along.

In other Thursday preview news, The Bob’s Burgers Movie grossed $1.5 million in Thursday night previews that began at 5:00 PM. Certainly not a bad start and it’s still on track to fall in line with tracking that has it between a $10-14 million opening. I called for a $13.5 million opening in my box office predictions.

Did YOU check out Top Gun: Maverick last night? What were YOUR crowd reactions like during your screening?