According to several US media outlets, Paramount has refused to sell its highly anticipated movie, ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to any streaming platform. Tom Cruise is set to return to his iconic role as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell in the sequel to his 1986 film, ‘Top Gun’. Although audiences are eager to see Pete’s latest high-flying adventures, the sequel has become one of the films struggling to make a dent in the coronavirus pandemic.
The film was scheduled to be released in June 2020, but the pandemic moved it to December, and then again to July of this year.
Although the vaccine is gradually making its way around the world, attending a theater is still somewhat complicated in 2021. Most of the major releases of 2020 have set new dates for this year, but vaccination is a slower process than whatever you want. Sony has already placed ‘Morbius’ by the end of the year, and Warner Bros. made the decision in December to release all of its 2021 movies on HBO Max on the same day as in theaters. In fact, streaming has become an important avenue for several great releases expected by the public, something that would have been unthinkable just a year ago.
However, audiences shouldn’t expect ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ to join movies that have gone to platforms. Some streaming giants like Netflix and Apple TV + were curious to see if Paramount would be willing to sell “Top Gun: Maverick.” However, sources say the studio hasn’t even considered it due to the strong box office gains the long-awaited sequel is expected to make.
This isn’t too surprising, as box office returns are often a major reason studio stores avoid real-time launches. Warner Bros. has analyzed to get the best of both worlds with its dual HBO Max releases, but not all studios have a streaming service. Paramount is set to take over CBS All Access and turn it into Paramount + in a couple of months, but it remains to be seen if that could become a home for big blockbusters. Even if it does, Paramount is clearly not interested in missing out on the profits Top Gun: Maverick could make. The same happens to the James Bond saga, since ‘No time to die’ has once again changed the date, moving it to October this year.
If these movies continue to be delayed, the stream could end up becoming their future just so the studios can avoid having them in the drawer for too long. That is what is also happening to ‘A quiet place 2’. Anyway, there is still some time for this to happen. With ‘Top Gun: Maverick’, July is still far enough away that a delay doesn’t seem imminent Paramount is hopeful, and so are fans of Cruise and the first installment.
