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Tom Cruise needed more than 30 years and quite a bit of convincing to make Top Gun: Maverick. Then the film gave Cruise his best opening weekend and set several box office records on its way to joining the billion-dollar club. Now, Paramount found another way to reward fans and boost Maverick’s box office total at the same time.

Tom Cruise (left) in 'Top Gun: Maverick.' Paramount found a way to reward 'Top Gun: Maverick' fans and boost the movie's box office total with a limited edition giveaway during fan appreciation weekend.
Tom Cruise (from left), Glen Powell, Miles Teller, and Monica Barbaro in ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ | Paramount Pictures/Skydance/Jerry Bruckheimer Films

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ set several records at the box office

Within days, Maverick soared and delivered Cruise’s best opening weekend by a wide margin. It needed just eight days to become the actor’s best movie at the domestic box office.

Two months after it opened, it broke Titanic’s record and became Paramount’s highest-grossing movie domestically. As it continued to soar, it reached another milestone with its earnings from IMAX screenings.

After decades spent waiting for Top Gun: Maverick to take off, fans turned out to make it a massive success story. Now, Paramount is rewarding those fans with a limited edition giveaway while also finding a way to boost its box office numbers.

‘Maverick’ fan appreciation weekend will help boost the box office and includes a limited giveaway and exclusive content

Many movies fall off the radar within weeks of their release. Top Gun: Maverick isn’t one of them.

Paramount’s unyielding marketing campaign is one of the reasons Maverick is Cruise’s most successful movie. The planned 2020 release came and went, but the marketing team and actors never relented in promoting it. For example, Paramount rolled out a callsign and helmet design website a few weeks after the movie opened.

Now, nearly three months after it landed in theaters Memorial Day weekend, Paramount has another way to keep fans interested while adding to the massive box office total. From Aug. 12 to 14, people attending Top Gun: Maverick showings will receive an exclusive poster, MovieWeb reports. Screenings will also include a behind-the-scenes featurette on shooting aboard the USS Roosevelt before the movie. 

Also, starting Aug. 12, Maverick returns in IMAX and Dolby formats, per Paramount’s Twitter account. The giveaways and exclusive behind-the-scenes content could entice Top Gun: Maverick fans to buy tickets once again, giving it a boost to the box office total.

Is ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ a remake?

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It hits many of the same emotional notes and features Cruise in the starring role, but Top Gun: Maverick is not a remake. Aside from Maverick Val Kilmer’s Iceman, the characters from the original, such as Iceman’s radar intercept officer Slider and Meg Ryan’s Carol Bradshaw, don’t return.

One of director Joseph Kosinski’s selling points to get Cruise to say yes to the movie was moving his character’s story forward. The filmmakers consciously avoided rehashing the past.

Top Gun: Maverick’s massive box office success likely has fans and Paramount clamoring for a follow-up. Yet Top Gun 3 will never happen. Cruise’s schedule, age, and a possible lawsuit against Paramount mean making a third movie will be harder to pull off than an inverted 4G negative dive.

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