Tom Cruise to the rescue… 36 years after the original “Top Gun” premiered, “Mav” is back in the cockpit — and not a moment too soon for the movie biz. “Top Gun: Maverick” opened to $156M at the US box office, a new Memorial Day-weekend record. After being postponed several times because of the pandemic, “Top Gun” may signal a summer movie rebound:
It’s a big win for the big screen… The theater industry has come a long way since its 40-year sales low in 2020, but it will never again look like it did pre-pandemic. The reason: Hollywood studios have branched out their strategies beyond the theater.
The theatrical bar has been raised… Hollywood may push sequels and sure-fire hits to big screens, since iconic characters (Batman) and huge stars (Tom Cruise) are more likely to deliver returns on investment than new, unproven stories. But Paramount, Disney, and Universal also compete for streaming subscribers, not just theatergoers. So they may test out riskier films on their streaming platforms first, since a surprise streaming hit could yield subscriptions, or even a big-screen sequel.