LOS ANGELES: Paramount’s all-American blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick is still flying high at the box office, crossing the coveted $1 billion over the weekend.

With those ticket sales, the movie has overtaken Disney’s Marvel adventure Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ($943 million) as the highest-grossing movie of the year at the global box office.

Prior to this weekend, the sequel to Tom Cruise’s 1986 action flick Top Gun was already the highest-grossing movie of the year at the domestic box office, with revenues currently at $521 million. Along with $484.7 million at the international box office, Maverick has grossed $1.006 billion worldwide.

The film received shining reviews from critics — it earned a 96 per cent positive rating from 76 reviews collected on Rotten Tomatoes. Box office analysts had already predicted the movie would rank as one of the biggest hits of the summer.

Critics said the movie offers thrilling flight scenes, an emotional story and strong performances by the supporting cast, including Miles Teller, who plays the son of Goose, Maverick’s partner who died in the original film. But most of the praise was showered on Cruise.

“It’s a fresh-faced gloss on the original… powered, like the original, by a star who’ll simply never stop being a star,” wrote K. Austin Collins of Rolling Stone.

Leah Greenblatt of Entertainment Weekly said the movie “belongs in almost every scene to Cruise.”

It was screened at the Cannes Film Festival 2022 as well. “Exactly 30 years later, on May 18, 2022, the Festival de Cannes will pay him an exceptional tribute for his lifetime achievements,” the organisers said in a statement.