On the occasion of the broadcast on CANAL + of the blockbuster which crushed the box office in 2022, Didier Allouch went to meet Tom Cruise and the production team of Top Gun: Maverick to return to the spectacular course of the film which gave hope to cinemas following several years of health crisis.
A success that makes you dizzy
First, there are the numbers. With more than 6.6 million admissions in France this year, the continuation of the Top Gun by Tony Scott (1986) leaves the competition far behind at the box office, since the second in the annual ranking is below 4 million.
And with nearly $1.5 billion in revenue worldwide, Top Gun : Maverick (Joseph Kosinski, 2022) is not only one of the biggest successes since the arrival of Covid-19: it is one of the biggest hits in the history of cinema.
In short, its status as a phenomenon is not usurped, and all the more so since, as Didier Allouch reminds us, it is one of the very few films now capable of bringing together all audiences and all ages, at a time when tastes fragment into innumerable niches.
The film that saved the cinema?
And following two extremely gloomy years marked by the health crisis and the prolonged closure of cinemas, Top Gun : Maverick managed to give the public a taste for going to theaters, a habit that had been largely lost with the successive confinements.
Did the film save the cinema? Didier Allouch does not go that far, but it is undeniable that this blockbuster was the engine that cinemas lacked so much, and that it also gave color to a Hollywood industry increasingly inclined to release all films – including the most expensive – on streaming platforms at the expense of cinemas.
But for Tom Cruise, it was out of the question. As he explained during an exceptional masterclass given at the last Cannes Film Festival, the star actor thought Top Gun : Maverick like a movie made exclusively for the big screen in movie theaters.
Knowing that this sequel required more than a year of filming, it was necessary to hold on for the Paramount studio, forced to postpone the release countless times, before finally landing on screens in May 2022, following several years. so late.
An “old-fashioned” blockbuster
To ensure the promotion of the film, Tom Cruise spared no effort. The documentary recalls that it has traveled around the world to meet the public and journalists at previews, with a date necessarily more significant than the others: that of the presentation with great fanfare of Top Gun : Maverick in front of the public at the Cannes Film Festival, supported by the aerial parade of the Patrouille de France above the Croisette.
Well received by the press and the public, the film obviously struck a chord, that of nostalgia for old-fashioned blockbusters, where the green screen was not as ubiquitous as it is today in Hollywood studios. This sequel to the 1986 cult film was indeed produced mainly with traditional special effects, which means for example that Tom Cruise actually pilots his fighter plane.
A total investment in the role of which the actor is customary, and which perhaps explains why he is one of the last very big names whose mere presence on a poster is enough to move the crowds. And the documentary recalls it in conclusion: the actor transmits to all his collaborators his love of cinema and his know-how accumulated in forty years of career.
Enough to breathe a little optimism into a sector that really needs it, but in the meantime, Tom Cruise has already set out once more on his next two challenges: filming the two new episodes of Mission Impossible. Something tells us they should be talked regarding a lot.
Top Gun Maverick: The Phenomenona documentary available on CANAL+.
