'Elvis' Beats Out 'Top Gun' With Its Opening Weekend

Elvis' Opening weekend sales has taken out Top Gun Maverick for the number one film, reaching $31.1 million in revenue, compared to Top Gun's $29.6 in revenue on its fifth weekend.

Elvis' figures make it the third number one opening weekend for Warner Bros., before The Batman at $134 million in revenue and Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbleore at $42.1 million. 

The sales were driven by an older demographical audience, with the over-45 crowd scoring the film at around 90% while younger demographics, 18-24 year olds and 13-17 year olds ranking it at 83% and 76% respectively.

49% of the people who went to see Elvis did because of the subject matter, followed by 25% of the audience wanting to see Tom Hank who performs as Colonel Tom Parker, Presley's manager. 

Harry Styles was a serious contender to land the lead role in this year's Elvis biopic, directed by Baz Luhrmann. 

Instead, Luhrmann cast Austin Butler, revealing on radio podcast Fitzy & Wippa why he chose Butler over Styles.

“Harry is a really talented actor. I would work on something with him [but] the real issue with Harry is, he’s Harry Styles,” Luhrmann said.

"He’s already an icon. Harry and I came to a place, genuinely I mean, he was just desperate to put the suit on and explore. He’s such a great spirit and I have nothing but great things to say about Harry Styles.

"The thing about Austin was that he will tell you himself, I didn’t pick him: It’s as if he was drawn, like the role drew him in, because he was almost born to play it.

"You know, we can talk about it now, he like loses his mom at the same age that Elvis did. He sends a video to me with this thing and… He just happened like two years non-stop living and breathing as Elvis. He’s now going through a sort of, it’s like, deprogramming thing because he’s been a long time since he’s known who he was.”

The story sees the relationship evolve and span 20 years, from Presley's rise to fame to his unprecedented stardom, and is currently showing across Australia.