Top Gun: Maverick flew past $500 million globally. Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness hit $900 million worldwide. And Jurassic World Dominion dominated in its early overseas debut with $56 million.

All without the benefit of releases in two major offshore markets, prompting box office pundits to ask, who needs China and Russia?

As it is, Tom Cruise’s Top Gun sequel easily cruised to $500 million – $548.6 million, to be exact – without those two countries. Maverick still has to open in Korea (it bows there on June 23) but it has already grossed $257 million in over 60 territories after two weekends.

Joseph Kosinski’s high-flying sequel, which introduces Glen Powell, Jennifer Connelly, and Miles Teller’s characters, continues to soar especially in Japan, Australia, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Hong Kong, Italy, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and Taiwan.

Far from being extinct, the Jurassic franchise – with its latest installment, Jurassic World Dominion – is still very much alive, based on its early international debut figures of over $50 million. The third comeback of the dinos, which also sees the return of Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Laura Dern, Jeff Goldblum, and Sam Neill, roared loudest in Latin America, including Argentina, Colombia, Mexico, Uruguay, Peru, Central America, Chile, and Ecuador.

Directed by Colin Trevorrow, the threequel that sees the dinosaurs now living and hunting alongside humans also stars BD Wong, Omar Sy, Isabella Sermon, DeWanda Wise, and Mamoudou Athie.

Benedict Cumberbatch’s Doctor Strange 2 easily conjured $909.4 million worldwide after five weekends, sans the world’s biggest movie market numbers.

In the domestic market, Top Gun 2 still soared with $90 million. Dropping 29 % only on its second weekend, Maverick is appealing to a broader audience. That’s seldom seen since the pandemic began.

With the Cruise and Jeremy Bruckheimer collaboration pulling away, these movies settled for 2-3-4-5 ranking: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, $9.25 million; The Bob’s Burgers Movie, $4.5 million; The Bad Guys, $3.34 million; and Downton Abbey: A New Era, $3 million.

The “little” indie movie that could, Everything Everywhere All at Once, shows no signs of stopping and is ranked sixth. Michelle Yeoh’s action/adventure/sci-fi/comedy is still everywhere, picking up $2 million on the recent weekend.

After 11 weeks, this other multiverse film, directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, has earned $60.5 million. The film’s distributor, A24, is predicting that it will beat Hereditary’s $80 million and will become its biggest global hit.

Making up the rest of North America’s box office top ten were, in order: Vikram, a Tamil-language action thriller film, one of several movies from India that have recently managed to break through the United States and Canada charts, $1.77 million; Sonic the Hedgehog 2, $1.725 million; The Lost City, $1.38 million; and David Cronenberg’s Viggo Mortensen-Lea Seydoux-Kristen Stewart body horror film, Crimes of the Future, $1.1 million.

In other chart news, the following are the most-watched on the streaming platform (for the week of May 2 to 8; Nielsen lags in its ratings reporting), in order: Ozark, Grace and Frankie, Moon Knight (Disney+), Outer Range (Amazon), Selling Sunset, Bullsh*t the Gameshow, Meltdown: Three Mile Island, Bridgerton, The Circle and The Wilds (Amazon). All programs are on Netflix except as indicated.