Will Top Gun 3 Become the Default AV Demo Disc?

Paramount has confirmed Top Gun 3 is officially in development, announced during the studio’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas this week. Tom Cruise returns as Captain Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, with producer Jerry Bruckheimer and screenwriter Ehren Kruger — who co-wrote Top Gun: Maverick — both back. Joseph Kosinski is expected to direct. No release date has been set, though Cruise’s schedule suggests 2028 at the earliest.

The studio also confirmed a 45-day exclusive theatrical window for all releases, effective immediately, and a 90-day streaming window before titles move to Paramount+. The original Top Gun returns to cinemas on 13 May 2026 to mark its 40th anniversary — its fourth theatrical run, and the first since Val Kilmer’s passing in 2025.

None of this will surprise anyone who owns a home theatre system. Top Gun: Maverick has been the default AV demo since the 4K UHD Blu-ray landed in late 2022, and nothing has seriously challenged it since. Shot on IMAX cameras in 6K and mastered as a native 4K transfer with Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos, the disc earned perfect or near-perfect scores from every major AV publication. High Def Digest gave it 100/100 for video. AVForums called it “the home cinema experience of 2022, and arguably a contender for one of the best 4K discs since the inception of the format.” Sound & Vision flagged the Atmos track as “a demo showpiece from beginning to end,” noting LFE extending below 20Hz during the afterburner sequences.

Three scenes have become industry standard demo material: the Mach 10 opening, the low-level training canyon run, and the final attack sequence. Walk into any AV dealer showroom or home theatre showcase in 2026 and there is a good chance one of them will be playing.

The sequel arrives into a television market that has moved on substantially since 2022. RGB mini-LED panels now routinely exceed 4,000 nits, OLED brightness has roughly doubled, and Dolby Vision 2 and HDR10+ Advanced are rolling out across new sets. Harold Faltermeyer and Hans Zimmer collaborated on Maverick’s score, with Lorne Balfe and Lady Gaga also contributing — no composer has been announced for the sequel. If Kosinski shoots Top Gun 3 with the same commitment to practical aerial photography and IMAX cameras — and Cruise’s track record suggests he will — it could become the next generational reference disc. The question is whether physical media will still be the best way to experience it. Maverick’s lossless Atmos track on disc sounded markedly better than its streaming counterpart, a gap that Sound & Vision described as impossible to miss even at matched volume levels.

For now, the original Top Gun hits cinemas again next month. And if you still haven’t run Maverick’s canyon sequence through a properly calibrated system — that should probably come first.

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