Why Top Gun 2 Just Got Delayed
1. Why The Delay Will HELP Top Gun 2
Aside from the potential for better action sequences and a greater experience all round, there's another huge factor that should have come into the discussions at Paramount. The issue of competition.
In its original July 12th slot in 2019, Maverick was sandwiched between Spider-Man: Far From Home and Disney's live action The Lion King remake. Both of those movies could make a billion dollars for Disney and being the meat in that particular sandwich was never going to be a positive. Add to the equation the fact that Tarantino's Once Upon A Time In Hollywood lands at the end of the month and you've got direct competition for the more adult box office dollars too.
Anyone with a family is going to find that a particularly expensive cinema month and of the four, the most obvious loser is Top Gun 2. Nostalgia and Tom Cruise might be powerful, but they're not Disney powerful, they're not The Lion King powerful and they're CERTAINLY not Spider-Man powerful. He's still Disney's hottest toy seller for a reason.
Moving the film to 2020, where it has significantly less direct competition (for now anyway) makes a lot of sense and protects its box office potential. Better to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the entire season rather than not even the biggest of a single MONTH.
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