1986 Action Film's Sequel Became a No. 1 Box Office Hit 36 Years Later With Same Cast
More than three decades after Top Gunfirst took flight, its long-awaited sequel proved that lightning can strike twice. When Top Gun: Maverick hit theaters in the summer of 2022, it also soared to the top of the box office with the return of its original stars.
With Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer reprising their iconic roles as Pete "Maverick" Mitchell and Tom "Iceman" Kazansky, the sequel became a rare Hollywood success story - bringing back familiar and new faces, and turning them into a 1.5 billion-dollar phenomenon almost 40 years later.
Directed by Tony Scott and released in 1986, Top Gun followed Navy pilot Pete "Maverick" Mitchell as he trains at the elite Fighter Weapons School. In the process, he battles for the top spot against rival "Iceman," falls for his instructor Charlie (Kelly McGillis) and struggles with the death of his best friend, "Goose" (Anthony Edwards).
Meanwhile, Top Gun: Maverick continues the Lieutenant's journey decades later, where he has to confront his past while training the new generation of Top Gun graduates, including Rooster, the son of "Goose," for a dangerous mission. The ensemble cast featured Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman and Ed Harris.
Though Kilmer was asked to reprise his role and marked his final film, Maverick director Joseph Kosinski intentionally left out the female leads from the original film, McGillis and Meg Ryan, to avoid excessive nostalgia and focus on the storylines for the new characters.
Top Gun: Maverick was originally scheduled to be released in July 2019, but was delayed to June 26, 2020, in order to shoot more action scenes. Then, the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the process even more, on top of scheduling conflicts with Cruise and other bigger movie releases, so it got pushed back further. The film had its world premiere at CinemaCon on April 28, 2022, and then a theatrical release a month later.
The 2022 sequel made a total of 1.496 billion worldwide and became the highest-grossing film of Cruise's career. Top Gun: Maverick was the No. 1 domestic box office hit that year, and the second-highest-grossing movie for 2022, behind Avatar: The Way of Water. Meanwhile, the first Top Gun film grossed over $350 million worldwide, which is equivalent to one billion in 2026.
Last week, it was announced that a third installment for the Top Gun series was in the works, with the 63-year-old actor set to reprise his character as Maverick, while Powell and Teller, who played "Hangman" and "Rooster" in the sequel, respectively, will return. According to multiple sources, Kosinski will not be directing the third film.
A week after Top Gun: Maverick was released in theaters, Cruise took to Twitter (now called X) to express his gratitude for all of the support.
"Thank you to everyone who saw #TopGun: Maverick and helped make it a historic opening weekend," he posted on May 31, 2022. The film earned an estimated $124 million at the box office in the United States on the opening weekend, which marked the actor's biggest opening weekend to date.
Thank you to everyone who saw #TopGun: Maverick and helped make it a historic opening weekend.
— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) May 31, 2022
Starting on May 13 for one week only, both Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick are returning to theaters for a special 40th anniversary event. Meanwhile, both Top Gun movies can be streamed on Paramount+.
Related: Iconic '80s Movie Classic Coming Back To Theaters For Its 40th Anniversary
Copyright 2026 The Arena Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved
This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 5:02 PM.