It's unlikely the film could have gotten made without the Pentagon's considerable support. A single F-14 Tomcat cost about $38 million. The total budget for “Top Gun” was $15 million. In exchange for DOD backing, the producers agreed to let the department make changes to the script.
In describing the background to the employment dispute, the lawsuit said the Top Gun deal with Paramount was achieved “with financial backing from Russian oligarch and silent partner Dmitry Rybolovlev”.
How much did the US Navy pay for Top Gun: Maverick?
According to a report from Bloomberg, the U.S. Navy charged the production of Top Gun: Maverick over $11,000 an hour for access to its F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets. It's no wonder why the final budget ended up at $171 million (via Collider).
Dan Pedersen is a retired United States Navy Captain, credited as being the leading force behind the creation of the United States Navy Fighter Weapons School program known as “TOPGUN”.
Top Gun Sequel Serves As A Sweet New Piece Of U.S. Military Propaganda
Did the US government pay for TOPGUN?
It's unlikely the film could have gotten made without the Pentagon's considerable support. A single F-14 Tomcat cost about $38 million. The total budget for “Top Gun” was $15 million. In exchange for DOD backing, the producers agreed to let the department make changes to the script.
David Ellison was a longtime fan of Top Gun, and co-financed the production for 25%. China's Tencent was also expected to co-finance but dropped out, with New Republic taking over another 25% on the pic's $177M net production costs (which included reshoots). Paramount covered the remaining 50%.
Mach 10 is a feat that has been previously accomplished by a manless aircraft called X-43A, developed by NASA as an experimental aircraft to test hypersonic speeds. Mach 10 is approximately a speed of 3.43 kilometers per second or 12,348 kilometers per hour, which translates to 7,680 miles per hour.
The US Navy lent Tom Cruise F/A-18 Super Hornets for the new “Top Gun” movie. The only catches: The studio paid as much as $11,374 an hour to use the advanced fighter planes -- and Cruise couldn't touch the controls.
Are the planes in Top Gun real? The authenticity of Top Gun: Maverick is significantly enhanced by its use of real fighter planes, including F/A-18 Super Hornets and F-35s. The production team secured these state-of-the-art aircraft for filming despite the considerable expense involved.
In 1974, E. Howard Hunt, a former officer of the agency, revealed that he had been sent by the CIA's Psychological Warfare department to obtain the film rights of Animal Farm from George Orwell's widow, and the resulting 1954 animation was funded by the agency.
The United States Department of Defense has had a significant hand in the production of some of the most popular films of the 21st century. Hence, the images of war that we see on the silver screen are often filtered through the military itself.
The Pentagon was not sold to the United States of America. It was built and is owned by the U.S. federal government. It serves as the headquarters for the United States Department of Defense. The construction of the Pentagon began in 1941 and was completed in 1943.
It's not hard to see why China and India want a Top Gun: at the same time as being 1986's top-grossing film and launching Cruise as an American icon, the movie also functioned as soft-power projection of hard power, and recruiting advert for the US military to boot.
Paramount bought the rights to the article, “Top Guns,” from author Ehud Yonay in May 1983. But the studio did not re-acquire the rights, which had reverted to Yonay's widow and son, before releasing the sequel in 2022. “Top Gun: Maverick” grossed $1.5 billion at the box office.
In 1986, Cruise commanded $2 million for Top Gun. It was a worthwhile investment: The movie made $357 million on a $15 million budget and is regarded as an '80s-action classic. The same year, he made $1 million for The Color of Money, a sequel to 1961's The Hustler co-starring Paul Newman.
So Top Gun was more than a gangbusters earner for Paramount; it was a coup for the Pentagon. In exchange for the enlistment bounce and a sexy, exciting perspective on the pilot's life being presented to the general public, the military lent considerable aid to the production, from locations and equipment to personnel.
There is also a shot of an F-14 Tomcat coming into the barricade when Maverick and Rooster are forced to land on the carrier without landing gear. Since the F-14 was decommissioned in 2006, the Tomcat sequences were done with an F-18 and digitally edited in post.
How expensive is an F/A-18 Hornet fighter jet? The advertised flyaway cost of the F/A-18F is about $65 million. With an expected life of 6,000 flight hours, the amortized capital cost of the asset is $10,800.
The NASA/USAF X-15 is the fastest fighter jet ever produced. It reached record top speed of Mach 6.72 or 4,520 mph, which is more than five times the speed of sound.
Mach 10 represents an object's speed compared to the speed of sound, which is about 760 mph at sea level. Achieving Mach 10 speed is scientifically improbable for a manned aircraft, as the human body can't withstand the acceleration and G-force required.
Penny, played by Jennifer Connelly, is not physically in the first "Top Gun" movie, but she does exist in it, though only mentioned in passing. She is never actually seen on screen.
Key Takeaways. Tom Cruise has an estimated net worth of $600 million as of 2023, according to Celebrity Net Worth. Cruise's Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One hit theaters on July 12, and earned close to $16 million at the box office on opening day.
