The premiere of “T.op Gun: Maverick”, the sequel to the 1986 film, will probably be the pearl at the box office so far this year. The Paramount Pictures film grossed approximately US$124 million in the United States in the first weekend, proving that nostalgia is perhaps the only thing that can save cinema in theaters: 55% of the audience was over 35 years old according to a survey published by The Washington Post; and 97% recommended the film, according to review site RottenTomatoes.com.
“Top Gun: Maverick”, starring Tom Cruise as the pilot Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, he escapes the logic of the superhero protagonist (the other big releases to date are Sony’s “Spider-Man: No Way Home”; Disney’s “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness”; and Warner’s “The Batman.” And it precedes the screen premieres of “Jurassic World Dominion“(Universal), where they return Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum and Sam Neill (stars from the original in 1993, almost 30 years ago); and of “LightyearDisney, where the story of the astronaut who inspired the toy of “Toy Story” (1995) is told.
against the current
From the opening tones of his synthesized score in the opening credits, “Top Gun: Maverick“It clearly announces that it feels the need… the need to squeeze every nostalgic smile and tear at fans of the 1986 original.
The film pays tribute to the late Tony Scott and a cinema from another time that many clearly yearn for. The public, which forgets political correctness to celebrate war epic in times of another war; and the aesthetic realism of current films to vibrate with a photograph bathed in the romantic brilliance of magical sunsets.
And if everything works, it’s thanks to Tom Cruise, who reincarnates the pilot who flouts the rules, cheats death and breaks hearts. Maxims that not even James Bond himself knew how to sustain, that 007 to which Cruise pays tribute in the successful “Mission: Impossible” saga, one that establishes him as the greatest star of analog cinema in a digital age, and probably also as the greatest reference in the action cinema.
If in “Top Gun” Maverick was solving some problems with his late father while learning how to shoot down Soviet MiGs, 30 years later little has changed: he is still a captain in the US Navy, working as a test pilot and teaching young recruits while struggle to avoid obsolescence at the hands of remote-flying drones.
And there is still the lingering guilt over the death of his best friend Goose (Anthony Edwards), which revives when he has to take care of his son Bradley (Millas Teller). A conflict that is repeated in other sagas such as “Creed”, the sequel to Rocky with Sylvester Stallone; and “Obi-Wan Kenobi”, where Ewan McGregor he must watch over the twins of his friend and later nemesis Darth Vader (Hayden Christensen returns as Anakin Skywalker), because the formulas of nostalgia have family ties that are repeated.
Legacy sequels
Character returns two and three decades later have long been a fad. One that has come to stay. After Hollywood tried more than a decade ago with “Tron: Legacy” (2010) and “Scream 42 (2011), reviving titles that seemed dead and buried, the genre really caught fire in 2015 with franchises inactive for 30 years. “Mad Max: Fury Road” swapped Mel Gibson for Tom Hardy, grossed $375 million, garnered 10 Oscar nominations and won six; Jurassic World grossed $208 million in its opening weekend and $670 million worldwide; “believe“, centered on the son of Rocky’s late nemesis-turned-friend Apollo Creed, with excellent direction from Ryan Coogler, earned $214 million; and “Star Wars: The Force Awakens,” brought back Han, Leia , and Luke almost 40 years after the original.
And back came the return of Independence Day with “Resurgence” in 2016, two decades later and with the return of Jeff Goldblum; “blade runner 2049” (in 2017, 35 years after the original); Y “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” (2017), sequel to the 1995 film starring the late Robin Williams. To name just a few, to which are added more recently the relaunch of the Matrix franchise with “Resurrection” (in late 2021), and the return of the Ghostbusters in “The Legacy”, earlier this year.
And the next step in that sequence will be the summit meeting of the original cast of “Jurassic Park” in the epic conclusion (?) of the saga: “Jurassic World: Dominion”. Colin Trevorrow’s new film is set four years after Isla Nublar was destroyed. Dinosaurs coexist with humans, which reconfigures the balance of the world and calls into question who will now be the most fearsome predator. “Not only are we finishing the story that started in 2015 in Jurassic World, but we’re wrapping up the one that started in 1993 in Jurassic Park. That is why this story needs all the characters in the saga”, says Trevorrow, who appeals to a combo of stars to break the box office.
Established trend
Hollywood plays its best cards in the search for the rescue of the theaters. Studios and exhibitors are still making up for losses incurred during the pandemic, and adjusting to new ways of doing businessincluding shorter release windows and the need to power their own services, while wondering if cinema will ever return to pre-Covid levels.
“We’re still waiting for the bigger audiences to come back,” said Jim Orr, head of distribution for Universal Pictures. In early May, studio executives and movie stars spoke with theater owners and exhibitors at a convention in Las Vegas. And expectations are particularly high for “Top Gun: Maverick,” produced by Jerry Bruckheimer, who never gave up wanting to release it exclusively in theaters due to its large number of aerial photographs and effects. “It’s the kind of movie that encompasses the experience of going to the movies,” insists Bruckheimer.
Before the pandemic, the summer movie season (winter in this hemisphere) could produce more than $4 billion in ticket sales, equivalent to 40% of the year’s gross receipts according to Comscore. In 2020, that total plummeted to $176 million. Last year it recovered something with US$ 1.7 billion, but things just got back to normal: Many chose to delay releases or employ hybrid strategies with their platforms.
Ticketing service Fandango recently surveyed more than 6,000 ticket buyers, with 83% saying they planned to see three or more movies on the big screen in June and July. “Top Gun 2”, “Jurassic World: Dominion”, “Thor: Love and Thunder”, “Elvis”, “Lightyear” and “Minions: The Rise of Gru”, They promise to reposition the rooms. But the platforms have something to compete with in that period. “Streaming has a place in the world, but it’s not the only thing in the world,” insists Bruckheimer, concluding: “It all depends on the movies. It’s always about the movies.”
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