The success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, the sequel to the legendary mid-80s film starring Tom Cruise, has conquered the specialized press. Numerous media outlets see this blockbuster as the true rebirth of cinemas after the pandemic crisis. Its 618 million dollars on the domestic market which, together with the international collection, become more than 1.2 billion worldwideare reason enough for all the excitement imaginable, but Sony has something to point out in this regard.
Sanford Panitch and Josh Greenstein, co-chairs of Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group, in statements to Vulture, reflected on the aforementioned triumph Noting that while “Maverick” was delayed in search of a better time to make its theatrical debut, other films like “Venom: There Will Be Massacre” were released to keep theaters alive. Both executives recall that Sony Pictures was one of the first studios to do its part to bring viewers back to the cinema during the pandemic, which would help resume a habit Cruise’s film has now benefited from.
The studio released “There Will Be Massacre” in October last year, managing to get 90 million, 10 million more than the original film released in non-pandemic times. At the end of his tour in the halls, ‘Venom 2’ has amassed a total of 506 million worldwide (well below the 856 million of the original), something that is considered a success given the moment it was made available to viewers.. After these first steps, Sony launched “Ghostbusters: Beyond” (204.4 million worldwide) and the success that was “Spider-Man: No Way Home” (1.9 billion), a film that has become the third highest-grossing film in history, not adjusted for inflation. Like this Panitch and Greenstein want to remember how their studio paved the way resulting in a significant improvement in the state of cinemas.
“When we started distributing the films in October last year, other films of that size weren’t really being released”says Greenstein. “Everyone had decided to postpone their big movies to this year, this summer. We made a big bet by releasing ‘Venom 2’ in theaters, which we then partnered with ‘Ghostbusters’. But of course our biggest risk was. that, when all the other studios would have bet on escape, we are back in the pool with ‘Spider-Man’, our biggest and most important brand”.
Put things in perspective
Panitch and Greenstein point out that talking about the success of “Top Gun: Maverick” should go on considering those films that came out when things were terrible, instead of opting for waiting. “Now there are so many articles reacting to the success of ‘Top Gun’ … It’s like, ‘The world of cinema is back!’ In a weird way, I’d say “Top Gun” is benefiting from the fact that we go to theaters when we did. ‘Venom’ is the beginning of that story that allowed ‘Top Gun’ to become the success it is. These things don’t happen overnight. It is something that must be sown “adds Panitch.
The next thing for Sony in theaters on August 2 is “Bullet Train”, a film directed by Brad Pitt, Aaron Taylor-Johnson or Joey King and in the guise of Bad Bunny. David Leitch (‘Deadpool 2’, ‘Atomic’) directs this blockbuster who aspires to follow in the footsteps of Cruise’s proposal, will it succeed?
Source: E Cartelera
