Tom Cruise’s latest movie Top Gun: Maverick has smashed a 15-year box office record for America’s Memorial Day weekend.

The action movie, a sequel to 1986’s Top Gun, was projected to take $151 million (£120 million) in the U.S. across the four-day holiday weekend but it did better than expected and has achieved the best Memorial Day opening of all time.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Top Gun: Maverick ended the weekend with $156 million (£124 million), which breaks the record of $153 million (£121 million) set by Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End in 2007.

The film’s box office haul is also a career-best for Cruise and marks the first time one of his movies has crossed the $100 million (£79 million) milestone in its opening weekend. It was also his best opening weekend in 32 markets around the world, including America.

Globally, the movie has taken $280 million (£222 million) so far.

Cruise, director Joseph Kosinski, producer Jerry Bruckheimer and the rest of the Top Gun: Maverick team delayed its release by two years in order to give it a big cinematic release in the Covid-19 era.

The action man, who reprises his role as Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell after 36 years, embarked on a mammoth press tour to promote its release. The biggest stops included the world premiere on the aircraft carrier USS Midway in San Diego, California, a glamorous debut at the Cannes Film Festival, and a royal premiere in London attended by the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.

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