Most mainstream films are shown in theaters during a four-week time period after the release date and in some cases only two weeks. Top Gun: Maverick was released on May 27th, but is still playing in theaters as a top-five film three months later. But why?

It’s simple: Top Gun: Maverick is an amazing audience pleaser. This shouldn’t be a surprise—the original Top Gun was the number one film at the year-end box office in 1986. Still, popularity alone can’t explain how the film has now made more than Titanic and Avengers: Infinity War. This Joseph Kosinski film essentially won the film release lottery, hitting the ideal audience at the ideal time with a film that is universally loved.

The cost to make the film was not cheap. Now, this would make sense, all the planes in the movie were real fighter Jets. The US Navy charged the production of Top Gun: Maverick more than $11,000 an hour. This would explain why the final cost of making Top Gun: Maverick was 117 million dollars. The movie reportedly made 1.355 billion dollars USD which is crazy. Tom Cruise (Maverick) was reported to have a payday of 100 million dollars.

After thirty years of service as one of the Navy’s better navigators, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, returns to where it all started “Top Gun”. Maverick is ordered to train dozens of young elite graduates of F/A-18E/F pilots to complete an urgent mission: destroy a foreign country’s underground uranium plant. Maverick must confront his past and deepest fears, and peak in the mission that requires a sacrifice from those who fly. The pilots have to overcome bigger challenges than they’ve faced before in order to complete the mission.

If you ask your parents, they will say the original Top Gun was “the movie” when they were growing up. Do you need to watch the original Top Gun before watching Top Gun: Maverick? The answer is not necessarily, though the films don’t connect majorly, to understand a little bit from Maverick’s past and feel the whole effect watching the original movie will do you good.

Compared to the original, the graphics in Top Gun: Maverick are amazing and up to date. The way the planes sounded are spot on and sounded so realistic and the action shots were incredible, it almost made you feel as if you were in one of the planes and it was right there in front of you. Along with the setting, the setting was fairly similar to the original film which made the movie stand out because they didn’t make any enthusiastic changes and they stayed true to the original.

The acting was really good and the emotions in scenes were very well, but from an audience perspective there should have been more. Most scenes felt happy and compared to the original there was a lot more emotion during the movie than Top Gun: Maverick. But one big thing that stood out was how much comedy the film has, you can get a good laugh in some of the scenes. Something that was really enjoyable was the relationship the pilots had with each other, including Maverick’s relationship with Penny and Rooster. As well as the iconic beach scene corresponding to the volleyball scene in the original movie.

Overall this is a well-written film and definitely an all-audience favorite. If you haven’t seen it already, this movie is highly recommended for any viewers. Not to mention the film doesn’t drag on like most movies. It’s a fun storyline, the relationship building is amazing, the plane shots are astounding, and the overall performances made this film super entertaining. After watching it, you’ll realize why it was the movie of the summer.