Although a high cost accompanied the making of the film due to the use of real Navy and flight equipment, the cost proved to pay off. In 1986, “Top Gun” was the highest-grossing film of the year, making $177 million in the United States alone and $353 million worldwide.
It came in first even before “Crocodile Dundee”, which came in second, and “Platoon” in third. Considering that the film cost $15 million to make, “Top Gun” had a huge revenue and continued to take in money after they decided to release the film in other countries.
Mixed Reviews
While "Top Gun" was a huge success and is now considered to be a classic film, this wasn't always the case. After it was first released, it got mixed reviews from both critics and audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film only has a 54% although the audience gave it 83%.
Critic Roger Ebert gave the film 2.5 out of 4 stars and said “Movies like "Top Gun" are hard to review because the good parts are so good and the bad parts are so relentless. The dogfights are the best since Clint Eastwood’s electrifying ariel scenes in "Firefox". But look out for the scenes where the people talk to one another.”
The Audience the Movie Was Attempting to Attract
While Tony Scott was on break during the filming of the hangar scene, he was approached by a group of Navy officers. They told him that among many things that weren't consistent or true with being a pilot or in the military was the unrealistic collection of patches on the actors' flight suits.
Scott replied by saying, “We’re not making this movie for Navy fighter pilots, we’re making it for Kansas wheat farmers who don’t know the difference.” What a bold statement to make to actual Navy officers.
Bryan Adams Wouldn’t Allow His Music to Be Used
Bryan Adams was approached by the "Top Gun" crew to use his song "Only the Strong Survive" on the soundtrack. The singer, due to personal views, turned down the offer. So, producers had to continue on their search to find their soon-to-be best-selling soundtrack.
Adams later shared that he turned down the request because he felt that the movie glorified fighting and war. For this reason, he told producers to look for other music for the film. While the film without a doubt focused largely on fighter jets and their pilots, in the final film product, little fighting was included.
A Cartoon Cast Reunion?
In 2013, a 3D computer-animated sports comedy movie called "Planes" was released by Disney. It is a spin-off of Pixar's Cars franchise. For a small but significant moment in time, a "Top Gun" cast reunion was brought to life with 3D animation. A small tribute was made to "Top Gun" when Val Kilmer and Anthony Edwards were brought on to the voice cast for the film.
"Planes" wasn’t the smash hit we witnessed with "Cars" and received negative reviews. Despite this, it managed to gross $90,288,712 in the United States and Canada, and $148,970,000 in other countries, for a worldwide total of $239,258,712. So, you can consider that quite the box office success.