Top Gun Maverick Officially Surpasses Avengers: Infinity War at the Box Office

Top Gun: Maverick has successfully shot down a major Marvel Cinematic Universe bogey in Avengers: Infinity War, thereby procuring itself a prominent box office record.

In a development that was inevitable, the movie in which half the world's population is turned to dust has been effectively left in the dust by the juggernaut jet flown by the Tom Cruise-headlined sequel. Indeed, while Top Gun: Maverick spent the past few weeks tailing Avengers: Infinity War's sixth-place record for all-time domestic box office grosses, Fandango and RottenTomatoes' Erik Davis has reported that the 2018 MCU epic has officially been overtaken by the former, marking a major accomplishment. While the exact numbers are not available at press time, Maverick was recorded last week with $677.5 million against Infinity War's $678.8 million. Thusly, this weekend's record-breaking was academic.

BOX OFFICE: Congrats to #TopGunMaverick on passing the best MCU film, #AvengersInfinityWar, to become the 6th highest grossing movie ever, domestically. #TopGun arrives at home on Tuesday, but will still remain in theaters. pic.twitter.com/ukuchwixGO
— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) August 20, 2022

Maverick, the decades-awaited sequel to the 1986 hit, Top Gun, first hit theaters domestically on May 27, and has been racking up accolades -- both financial and critical -- ever since. Now, its growing collection of mounted pelts made up of all-time great movie blockbusters adds Infinity War to its proverbial wall. Earlier this month, the film overtook director James Cameron's 1997 megahit, Titanic, bouncing it from its #7 place on the domestic charts; a shocking development for those old enough to remember the contemporaneous pop culture ubiquity of that film.

With a movie on the scale of success as Titanic having been overtaken, Maverick began to inch closer to one of the most successful entries in the most successful movie franchise of all time in Infinity War. Indeed, discussions of this accomplishment have been steadily escalating on a weekly basis, and last week saw reports indicating that the 2022 sequel was poised to procure the #6 spot held by the MCU crossover movie since its release year of 2018 -- that is if it hadn't done so already.

Top Gun: Maverick is scheduled for landing on Digital platforms on August 23, after which physical releases on 4K Ultra HD, Blu-ray and DVD November 1.