You’ll finally get your chance to watch Top Gun: Maverick at home next month. On Tuesday, it was announced that the year’s No. 1 movie will be coming to Paramount+ on Dec. 22, 2022. This follows the sequel previously hitting theaters in May to incredible success, flying high at the box office for several months. Many Paramount releases had been made available for streaming 45 days after their theatrical premieres, but that wasn’t the case for Maverick. Fortunately for fans wanting to watch the film at home, it comes just in time before the end of the year on Paramount+.

Per THR, a statement from the streamer reads, “Paramount+ today announced the #1 film of 2022, Top Gun: Maverick, will be available to stream globally on the service beginning Thursday, Dec. 22 in the U.S., as well as in Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Italy and previously announced markets – the U.K. and Latin America. It will be available in South Korea and France in 2023.”

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Directed by Joseph Kosinski, Top Gun: Maverick brings back Tom Cruise to reprise his role from the original film, while Val Kilmer also returns for a special reunion scene. The cast also includes Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris. Worldwide, the film has earned more than $1.4 billion, making it by far the highest-grossing film of the year. It is also the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s career. Clearly, it has paid off to hold off the streaming premiere for as long as the studio has.

Top Gun: Maverick Was Meant to Be Seen in Theaters

     Paramount Pictures

Top Gun: Maverick was designed from the start to be best suited for the theatrical experience. Even as the pandemic changed the ways most movies are released, with a great many coming to streaming on the same day as their theatrical release or just weeks after, there was never a consideration to do the same with Top Gun 2. Tom Cruise previously made it clear that the film’s release would have been pushed back for as long as it took for the movie theater industry to recover rather than ever releasing the film early on streaming.

“They wouldn’t dare,” Cruise said of a streaming release at Cannes, via IGN. “That’s not going to happen, ever. That was never going to happen. Never. Not going to happen.”

Of how great movies bring people together for a shared experience at the theater, Cruise added, “I’ve always loved the audience. I make my movies for audiences, because I am an audience, first and foremost. There’s a very specific way to make a film for cinema and I make movies for the big screen,”

Top Gun: Maverick will hit Paramount+ on Dec. 22, 2022.