This Is The Navy Weaponry That Top Gun 2’s Box Office Haul Could Buy
Top Gun: Maverick has made a carrier-load of money. Here’s what Navy aircraft, ships, and munitions it could buy.
In the roughly month and half since Top Gun: Maverick opened in theaters to rave reviews, the long-awaited sequel has raked in $1.13B at the box office. The film is still filling theater seats even while competing with Marvel's latest entry into the Thor franchise. With a huge part of the backend, it will mark Tom Cruise's biggest payday, which is remarkable considering the 60-year-old's incredible career and COVID-19 continuing to blunt the movie industry. Now there are talks of a sequel (of course there are) that could turn Top Gun into a traditional franchise. Regardless, against a budget of $170M, this thing made a ton of cash, but considering the world of military technology it leverages as a backdrop, it can be viewed as an amazingly small or large amount, depending on what you compare it to within that world.
So, what Navy weaponry could be bought with Top Gun: Maverick's box office total? The answer may surprise you:
-16 F/A-18 Super Hornets. That is over a squadron and a half of Boeing's '4.5' generation naval strike fighters that star in the movie.
-You could fly around 6,275 hours in one of those Super Hornets for that same sum.
-The Navy could buy six-to-seven E-2D Hawkeyes, the U.S. Navy's other flying star in Top Gun: Maverick.
-If flying rubber dog shit out of Hong Kong is your thing, then you could buy 14 KC-130Js
-Or around 11 CMV-22 Osprey carrier onboard delivery tiltrotors.
-Roughly two Littoral Combat Ships with their mission packages.
-You could operate an LCS 16 years
-Just shy of a single constellation class next generation Frigate.
-Around half of one Arleigh Burke class destroyer.
-You could operate that destroyer for 14 years.
-About 1/3 of a Block IV Virginia class nuclear fast attack submarine.
-Roughly 1/12 of a Ford class supercarrier.
-2625 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder air-to-air missiles
-1032 AIM-120D Advanced Medium-Range Air-To-Air Missiles (AMRAAMS)
-Close to 29,000 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs
-Roughly 5100 GBU-53/B Small Diameter Bomb IIs/Storbreakers
-51500 Joint Direct Attack Munitions (JDAMS)
-321 AGM-158C Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs)
-184 Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile-Extended Range (AARGM-ER) missiles
-735 Block V RGM -109 'Tactical' Tomahawk cruise missiles
-630 RIM-162 Block II Evolved Sea Sparrow Missiles
-481 Block IIIC SM-2 Standard surface-to-air missiles.
-262 SM-6 advanced multi-purpose missiles
-1250 RIM-116 Rolling Airframe Missiles
You can read more about what particular missiles and bombs cost in these past reports of ours.
The film has done incredibly well, but when you compare its big gross number with what the Navy doles out for hardware it can add a bit of perspective as to what all that capability depicted in the move or associated with it actually costs.
Regardless, go see it! It's a fun movie with great aerial sequences. If you can, do so in a SCREENX theater, it was a great addition to the experience!
Contact the author: Tyler@thedrive.com
