'Top Gun Myth' Changed the Map of the Film Industry

Rebooting the Theater Industry Amid COVID-19 and OTT Crisis
Nostalgia for Top Gun Shifts from 40s-50s to Younger Generations
80s Cinema Crisis Mirrors Top Gun's Box Office Success and Revival
Tom Cruise's Action and Middle-Aged Sentiments Boost Popularity

‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ which arrived 36 years after 1986, has recreated the Top Gun legend and once again saved movie theaters in crisis. As of the 7th, the cumulative audience for ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ reached 3,849,880 viewers (approximately 41.3 billion KRW in revenue). It is undoubtedly the leader at the global box office ($1,119,695,970). It earned $575,195,970 in North America alone, ranking twelfth highest of all time. It has far surpassed the performance of its predecessor ($180,258,178).

◆The Savior of Movie Theaters, Top Gun

Domestic movie theaters faced a revenue cliff over the past two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Revenue reached 1.914 trillion KRW in 2019 but dropped to 510.4 billion KRW the following year. Last year, it remained at 584.5 billion KRW. Online streaming services (OTT) rapidly rose, with films bypassing theaters altogether. However, the total revenue of the Korean film industry was 1.0537 trillion KRW in 2020 and 1.0239 trillion KRW last year, halving from 2.5093 trillion KRW in 2019. Even with OTT market growth, the film industry could not overcome its crisis without theaters recovering. Despite pessimistic forecasts, the film industry has revived.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ has effectively scratched the itch of movie theaters. Notably, the nostalgia for Top Gun among people in their 40s and 50s has spread to younger generations, which is encouraging. Hwang Jae-hyun, head of CGV’s Communication Team, said, “From the 22nd to the 26th of last month, the 40s age group had the highest share (28.8%),” adding, “From the 27th, the 20s and 30s age groups also rose above 28%.” He further explained, “It is leading the normalization of movie theaters with balanced support across all age groups.”

Movie 'Top Gun' still cut

This scene recalls the mid-1980s when movie theaters, facing a crisis due to the expansion of the home video market, found a path to recovery with the arrival of ‘Top Gun.’ At that time, theaters could not compete with technological innovations that broke spatial and temporal constraints. There were signs that the film distribution structure would be reorganized due to declining revenue. Paramount’s 1986 release ‘Top Gun’ changed the trend. It is a prototypical example of 1980s action films. With realistic aerial combat and impressive aviation skills, it unleashed men’s testosterone freely. It was so popular that the number of applicants for the U.S. Navy fighter pilot program increased significantly, recording the highest global revenue that year ($357,288,178). Movie theaters focused on the value rediscovered by audiences and instead utilized the video rental market. This increased total revenue and allowed theaters to showcase blockbuster films. Thanks to this, audience numbers began to rise again in proportion to video distribution rates.

◆Top Gun’s ‘Joy of Viewing’ Drives Special Theater Boom

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ maximizes the joy of watching movies through the screen. It vividly conveys the difficulty of high-level missions. At the center is Tom Cruise, now in his sixties. He personally boarded the modern all-weather fighter-bomber F-18, capturing even the distorted expressions caused by gravitational changes realistically. Sharp flight noises and more create thrilling excitement.

Cruise said, “I wanted to realistically convey flights that make the audience sweat.” He can be called the Buster Keaton (1895?1966) of our time. With unmatched stamina and athleticism, he performs all stunt scenes himself in every film. He studies camera work and storytelling to build his own cinematic world. In the case of ‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ he cleverly structured the film by understanding the success factors of the predecessor. It is a typical Hollywood narrative but transformed into a family drama by maximizing nostalgic elements. Considerable effort was put into the psychological portrayal of Maverick, now a mentor, showing both his dedicated professionalism and the sorrows of middle age.

A representative from the domestic distributor Lotte Entertainment said, “The thrill of realistic action conveyed by actors boarding fighter jets themselves and the easy-to-understand narrative captivated all age groups,” adding, “It is recognized as worth watching in special theaters equipped with large screens or high-quality sound systems.” From the 22nd of last month to the 4th of this month, the CGV seat occupancy rate for this film was 19.4%. However, in special theaters, it recorded 52.6% in 4DX, 72.3% in 4DX Screen, and 41.8% in IMAX, respectively. Team leader Hwang said, “The seat occupancy rate was higher in the second week than in the first week of release,” and predicted, “If this trend continues, long-term success is possible.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.