Top Gun: Maverick Is Being Re-Released In Theaters Before Avatar Comes For The Box Office Crown

Well, well, well, if it isn't "Top Gun: Maverick" coming back to eat up more of your hard-earned foldin' money. That's right! One of the biggest movies of all time is headed back to theaters for a limited, two-week engagement a mere month after it left theaters following a ridiculously successful run. The reason? There is a bit of a hole to fill before "Avatar: The Way of Water" swoops in to presumably set some of its own records. Or, at least, that's what Disney probably hopes given that film's insane budget. In any event, Paramount is going to try to ice its well-iced cake just a bit more.

Beginning this Friday, December 2, Tom Cruise's "Top Gun" sequel will return to theaters until December 15. Not coincidentally, "The Way of Water" is scheduled for release on December 16. Meanwhile, the only real blockbuster in theaters right now is "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever," which is slowly starting to run out of gas. And with the biggest movie coming out this weekend being the Christmas action flick "Violent Night," what does Paramount have to lose? "Maverick" already made $1.48 billion globally and ranks as the 11th highest-grossing movie ever. If the release makes even $1 million that's pretty much all going to be profit at this point. Chris Aronson, President of Domestic Distribution for Paramount Pictures, had this to say:

"Top Gun: Maverick truly epitomizes the magic of the moviegoing experience, and we wanted to provide fans the opportunity to once again enjoy this cinematic spectacle as it was meant to be seen. This feels like the perfect time to bring Top Gun: Maverick back to theaters so audiences everywhere can once again experience how special this film is."

From Paramount's perspective, there is no reason not to try and squeeze a little more juice from this downright miracle of a movie. They held onto it for two years during the pandemic expecting it would be a hit and man, were they right. Director Joseph Kosinski's sequel to the '80s classic decimated any and all expectations. Heck, if the movie had made $716 million worldwide (which it made domestically alone), it would have been considered a success. The fact that it made nearly $1.5 billion? It's still hard to process. So sure, from their point of view, why not?

That having been said, one can't help but feel like this might be stealing a little bit of juice away from "Violent Night." I'm not saying that it for sure will, but I can see a world in which a percentage of moviegoers decide, "Hell yeah, Top Gun again!" as opposed to giving the R-rated Christmas movie a shot. My main point is, it's stunning in the modern age to see a movie returning to theaters a month after its record-breaking theatrical run ended. But hey, anything to put meat in seats at an uncertain time. Just so long as it doesn't come at the expense of another potential hit that the industry sorely needs right now.

Tickets for the "Top Gun: Maverick" re-release are available now at TopGunMovie.com.