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Top Gun flies back into cinemas for its 40th anniversary as Paramount tries to make theater owners happy
Tom Cruise is bringing his 1986 classic (and its sequel) back into theaters this May
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Tom Cruise has decided that it’s time to go back to the danger zone. By which I mean, the movie theater.
In what might be the start of a lengthy promotional campaign for a just-announced third movie in the series, Paramount will be re-releasing Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick in theaters May 13 for one week only, as announced via Cruise’s social media. The post included the promotional images for the re-release, both of which feature the tagline, “Feel the Need Again.”
The reason for the re-release is that the first Top Gun celebrates its 40th anniversary in May 2026: the movie was originally released May 12, 1986 in New York City, before going wide May 16. Top Gun: Maverick, the second movie in the series, was released just three decades years later — it’ll be celebrating its own fourth anniversary on May 27.
A secondary reason for the re-release is that it quietly underscores the commitment Paramount Pictures and CEO David Ellison are publicly making to the theatrical experience as the studio awaits public and governmental approval of its buyout of Warner Bros. Discovery. At CinemaCon 2026, Ellison once again promised that, should the merger be allowed to go forward, the combined studios would release “a minimum of 30 films annually,” with every movie receiving at least a 45-day window between theatrical release and debut on digital platforms.
While an anniversary re-release wouldn’t necessarily fall into the bucket of the 30 theoretical films with a minimum window — they’re already available on digital, after all — the dual Top Gun re-release emphasizes that Paramount is looking to make the theater-going experience an event again to theater owners… and if it can make some more money from its back catalog in the process, all the better.
Top Gun and Top Gun: Maverick will be released in participating theaters May 13.
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