Top Gun (1986) to Top Gun: Maverick (2022): 36 years

Joseph Kosinski’s mastery of revisiting older material is most apparent with Top Gun: Maverick, which he directed. It brought back Tom Cruise as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and has proven to be, so far, the biggest hit of Cruise’s long career.

Earning nearly $1.5 billion worldwide, it was the second-highest-grossing film of 2022, behind Avatar: The Way of Water, and deserves much of the credit for bringing audiences back to theaters after the long pandemic shutdowns. (Avatar: The Way of Water was released a mere 13 years after the original Avatar.)

Also, Cruise wisely added to the excruciatingly long wait between films in the franchise by opting not to release Maverick on a streaming service, but rather to wait until people were ready to go back to theaters. And, in fact, Maverick gave them a reason to return.

Did Tom Cruise save movies? You could make that case. And a new Top Gun is in the works. Top Gun has also inspired many video games.