As Top Gun Maverick makes a billion dollars, Tom Cruise thanks people for going to theaters

Top Gun: Maverick has cleared the billion-dollar mark at the global box office – and star Tom Cruise has shared a message of thanks to theater-goers. The film has been playing exclusively in theaters since its May release.

"To all the films in release, to all the studios, and to all the exhibitors: congratulations," Cruise wrote on Twitter. "To the audience: thank you for venturing out and allowing us to entertain you. See you at the movies."

Maverick isn't the only film smashing the box office, either, with Baz Luhrmann's musical biopic Elvis netting a $50 million global premiere.

The Top Gun sequel has become the biggest hit of Cruise's career and is only the second movie to make $1 billion since the pandemic started (the first being Spider-Man: No Way Home). Alongside Cruise, the cast includes Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Danny Ramirez, Glen Powell, and Monica Barbaro.

"Originally, I wasn’t interested in doing a sequel," Cruise told Total Film magazine. "All over the whole world, people were asking for it, and asking for it. [Producers Don] Simpson and [Jerry] Bruckheimer – I remember back in '87, they had an idea. It was the germ of the idea, actually, that ended up with the concept of [Top Gun: Maverick]."

Cruise can next be seen in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1, while Maverick director Joseph Kosinski's next project is Formula One, which will star Brad Pitt. The director has said the film will use the same kind of in-camera work as the Top Gun sequel.

Maverick is in theaters now. For everything else the year has in store for us, check out our roundup of all of 2022's major movie release dates.