‘Top Gun: Maverick’ release delayed

Due to an increase in the delta version of Covid-19, Paramount has postponed their Tom Cruise tentpoles ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ and ‘Mission: Impossible 7,’ reports Variety.

‘Top Gun: Maverick’ will now be released in theaters on May 27, 2022, rather than November 19, 2021, while another Cruise-led adventure, ‘Mission: Impossible 7,’ will now be released on September 30, 2022, rather than May 27, 2022.

‘Top Gun: Maverick,’ a sequel to the 1986 action adventure, and ‘Mission: Impossible 7,’ the globe-trotting spy series, have each been delayed several times over the last year and a half because movie theater attendance levels have yet to return to normal.

Minutes after Paramount took ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ off its November 19 date, Sony pushed ‘Ghostbusters: Afterlife’ from its original slot on November 11 to that date. Even with the latest ‘Ghostbusters’ installment taking its place on movie theater marquees, the loss of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ is a huge blow to cinema operators, many of whom were relying on Cruise’s return to the cockpit to incentivize audiences around the holidays.