Paramount Global says its blockbuster summer movie “Top Gun: Maverick” will debut on its flagship streaming service around the holidays.
The Tom Cruise-led sequel to the 1986 action-comedy will debut on Paramount Plus in the United Kingdom and Ireland on December 22, just in time for the Christmas holiday.
No release date has been set in the United States, but Paramount executives have confirmed that Top Gun: Maverick is expected to land on Paramount Plus by the end of the year. The movie is already available to purchase in digital stores like Apple’s iTunes and Amazon Prime Video; DVD and Blu-Ray versions of the film will be released on October 31 in the United States.
“In the first week [of the movie’s release], it’s already the biggest home entertainment video we’ve ever had,” Brian Robbins, a Paramount executive in charge of entertainment, said at a conference last month.
Earlier this summer, Top Gun: Maverick surpassed the Walt Disney Company’s “Black Panther” to become the fifth highest-grossing film of all time in North America. As of early September, the film had generated over $700 million at the domestic box office, according to entertainment trade publications.
Robbins said the success of Top Gun: Maverick proved the movie theater business was alive and well, despite economic setbacks spurred by the two-year coronavirus health pandemic, which forced many theaters to close down.
“[Audiences] want to sit in a theater, they want to be moved, and they want to do it in a communal way,” Robbins said during the presentation on Wednesday. “I think theatrical is here to stay.”
But not everyone wants to sit in a dark theater to watch a summer blockbuster, for any number of reasons. Home theater setups are good enough for most movie fans, and movie buffs can share the living room or a dedicated entertainment space with their family and friends instead of strangers.
For that reason, some are holding out for the movie to land on Paramount Plus, which will no doubt be a cheaper option than seeing the film in theaters or buying it on DVD or Blu-Ray. All signs point to its release on Paramount Plus around the Christmas holiday season in the United States, but officials have yet to confirm this.
Paramount Plus costs between $5 a month and $10 a month, depending on certain features. The cheaper version includes content from Paramount Global’s vast library of shows and movies, including “Paw Patrol,” “SpongeBob SquarePants,” “Sonic the Hedgehog,” “Star Trek,” “Jackass,” “Survivor” and CBS News, with the price supplemented through brief ad interruptions. Viewers can ditch the ads and get access to a streaming feed of their local CBS station by paying $10 a month. Both tiers include live access to local National Football League games.
In late August, Paramount Global announced it would offer Showtime content within Paramount Plus for the first time. Paramount Plus with Showtime costs $8 a month or $80 a year with ads, or $13 a month or $130 a year without ads. Both versions include commercial-free access to Showtime’s shows and movies, as well as two linear feeds of the Showtime cable channel.
