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Tom Cruise seems to be an unlikely warrior against the woke. The sequel to the 1986 classic “Top Gun” has been stomping stalwartly to the front of the box office, In recent weeks, “Top Gun: Maverick” has staggeringly cleared over a $600 million, and that is just in its domestic form at the box office. The infamous Titanic, which for almost 15 years was the highest grossing film of all time, was finally unhorsed by Top Gun: Maverick as Paramount’s most successful film in the North American market.
Indeed, a statement was just put out by the fortuitous studio which formally announced this great achievement. In terms of the hard numbers, the first-run release of Top Gun: Maverick, with an exact dollar amount of $601,919 million, flew past (pardon the thematic pun) and became the Paramount’s highest-grossing domestic film in it over 100 year run. For comparison’s sake, Titanic, in its first run back in 1997, grossed $600,788 millions in the same market.
The statement went on to dwell on its overwhelming success since the beginning of this year. It worthily bragged that Paramount is currently #1 in the domestic box office, having achieved cumulative gross of over 1 billion dollars. Not bad for only a few month’s work.
Now, it is being reported that :
Top Gun: Maverick continues to smash records and make celebrities like John Cena and LeBron James, who infamously caved to China, look like unpatriotic wimps. The Tom Cruise sequel passed the $600M mark at the international box office just days after blowing past the $600M mark domestically.
According to Deadline:
“With these numbers, Top Gun: Maverick has become Paramount Pictures’ highest grossing film ever globally, surpassing Transformers: Age Of Extinction.”
The perfect summer movie has landed! See #TopGun: Maverick on the biggest screen possible – NOW PLAYING in theatres everywhere. https://t.co/67py5MSXtr pic.twitter.com/S36nJ6e6Uw
— Top Gun (@TopGunMovie) May 27, 2022
According to Variety:
“‘Top Gun: Maverick’ took fourth place, scoring $12 million from 3,292 screens. In its eighth weekend of release, ticket sales fell a scant 23%. With $617 million in the bank and no signs of slowing down, “Top Gun: Maverick” will soon pass “Star Wars: The Last Jedi” ($620 million) and “The Avengers” ($623 million) to rank among the top 10 highest-grossing films in domestic box office history.”
Cruise and other movie producers were slammed when the initial trailer for the film came out and Taiwan’s flag was not on the famous bomber jacket. But it made the final cut and the film was banned from the Chinese market causing Hong Kong film critic Ho Siu Bun to say the reinstatement of the flag was ‘unprecedented’:
“Major film studios have never been shy about pandering to the Chinese market. And even if it is a simple scene, editing is very costly. So no one knows why they changed it back.”
Bill Maher called out Hollywood and sports celebrities for taking China’s money. Maher said:
“But the NBA has a television deal with China worth a billion-and-a-half dollars.
“So LeBron James said Morey needed to be ‘educated on the situation,’ the situation being, ‘I’ve got some shoes to sell.”
“‘Kowtow’ is a Chinese word but boy, Americans have gotten good at it.”
“That’s the deal China offers American companies and celebrities: We’ll give you access to our billion-plus consumers as long as you shut up about the whole police-state-genocide thing. John Cena took that deal.”
Bob Ley, an Emmy Award-winning host who spent decades at ESPN hosting shows like “SportsCenter,” called out James and those in the media throwing stones at the golfers.
“It’s real easy to be pissed off and angry about LIV Golf and the Saudis. All I ask for is philosophical and ideological consistency. Apply it to China consistently, LeBron. LeBron, I think, has a responsibility, and an opportunity more importantly.”
“And it’s easy for people to come to the conclusion that players, at a time when social voice and equity are very much a part of sports, mores o than ever before, here’s an opportunity to make a stand.”
“If you are a billionaire, you can afford to perhaps make a stand and at least become educated.”
“China has as many issues as any other country, and is the outrage tempered by the popularity of the sport and the dollars at stake?”
“If you wanna get in a froth about LIV Golf, and you have every right to, take a pause, take a deep breath and look at China and see, should this outrage or this introspection and this attention extend to the NBA?” he said.
It seems amusing, even if dismally, that in its quest to become apolitical in its theme and presentation, the new Top Gun has still achieved a bit of political significance by abstaining. So, much like Kid Rock and Bill Maher, Mr. Cruise might suddenly find himself the subject of veneration in conservative circles.
Without professional gamblers, spectator sports would not be of any interest and would not exist.
Sometimes Bill Maher is spot on. This is one of those times.
Gotta remember that lebunghole is a PAB!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=J7FK36aEMqE