‘Top Gun’ delays flight until 2022

Paramount Pictures on Wednesday postponed the release of Top Gun: Maverick,

sending another of the autumn’s top movies out of 2021 due to the rise in coronavirus cases and the delta variant.

Instead of opening November 19, the Top Gun sequel, starring Tom Cruise, will instead debut Memorial Day weekend next year, on May 27. Additionally, Mission: Impossible 7

will be delayed from May 27 to September 30 next year.

The postponement is the latest setback for Hollywood’s once-hopeful autumn movie season. The delta-driven surge has upended the industry’s plans for some return to normality at multiplexes. The flight of Top Gun: Maverick follows a similar delay for Paramount’s Clifford the Big Red Dog. Paramount also on Wednesday pushed Jackass Forever

from October 22 to February 4.

The studio last month teased Maverick’s

first 13 minutes at CinemaCon, the annual exhibitor convention.