So far, Top Gun: Maverick has broken the Memorial Day weekend box office record, raking in over $150 million. Furthermore, Cruise and Paramount studios refused to sell the movie to streaming services. This was because Paramount, but specifically Cruise, didn’t want anybody seeing the film for the first time on a small electronic device. They specifically wanted audiences to have a proper movie theater experience and felt like this action epic deserved it. They were right.
Recently, because of the pandemic, many films were released in theaters and on streaming platforms simultaneously. One example would be 2021s Sci-Fi epic, Dune. In addition to the theater, Dune was also released on HBOMax. Many film fans took advantage of having an HBOMax subscription and watched the film at home. Dune is an absolute spectacle that deserves to be seen in theaters. I was honestly appalled when one of my friends told me he saw it on his tiny laptop. Seeing original blockbuster movies on the big screen with an audience is special and to throw that away on a laptop viewing alone hurts my soul.
Everything Everywhere All At Once, The Batman, and The Northman are three films released earlier this year that I would put in the category of unmissable at the theater (if you haven’t seen any of those movies yet I STRONGLY recommend doing so).
Despite each film being vastly different from one another, the filmmaking behind each project was nothing short of perfect. These film crews executed unique and beautiful films that made the theater experience a visceral journey and that goes for Top Gun: Maverick too.