The box office isn’t doing so hot right now, and yet Tom Cruis’s second outing as Peter “Maverick” Mitchell is still raking in the dough even as it entered its 12th week of release.

Variety was taking note of the noticeable lack of movie-goers, going so far as to ask if everyone was on vacation. It revealed that outside of Brad Pitt’s new movie “Bullet Train,” nothing else really did anything noteworthy as far as garnering ticket sales goes. In fact, “Bullet Train” raked in $13 million this weekend while everyone else couldn’t surpass $10 million.

Buried in the article was an interesting paragraph about the movie that came in second for this weekend, and it was none other than “Top Gun: Maverick.” The flick managed to rake in just over $7 million, and what’s more, is threatening to knock Disney/Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” off its spot as the 6th most grossing film of all time.

What’s more, as Variety details, this is happening in the movie’s 12th week of being out:

With the dismal turnout for most other movies, Paramount’s ever-powerful blockbuster “Top Gun: Maverick” swooped to second place in its 12th weekend of release. The action sequel continues to do unprecedented business, adding $7.1 million from 3,181 venues over the weekend and bringing its domestic tally to $673.8 million. That means “Maverick” is roughly $5 million away from dethroning Marvel’s “Avengers: Infinity War” as the sixth-highest grossing movie in domestic box office history.

While $5 million is a lot of money, “Maverick” has proved that it’s capable of generating cash, even amidst a downturn in moviegoers. If cinemas pick back up, it’s likely that “Maverick” will easily close the gap between it and “Infinity War”…and it might do it without an upturn anyway.

It’s not hard to wrap your head around why.

“Top Gun: Maverick” is hardly a movie you’d consider to be a major achievement by any production company. Its storyline is pretty meat and potatoes. It didn’t have breakthrough digital artistry. It would hardly win any awards for its marketing campaign.

“Infinity War” was something of a monumental achievement. It was the culmination of years of Disney/Marvel building characters, arranging storylines, pushing the bounds of computer animation, and tying everything together into one perfectly executed movie. By comparison, “Maverick” is a humble film, and yet it’s proving to be the film more people are willing to shell out money for.

This is because “Maverick” is the diamond in the rough. The rose among the thorns. It’s the breath of fresh air after suffocating in a hot, stuffy room.

After years of Hollywood shoving “the message” down our throats at every turn, “Maverick” was a return to normalcy. It didn’t preach or pander. It was just a solid tale with solid acting and great cinematography. It was a movie that reminded us that movies could be good.

As I covered previously, the left seemed to be unable to truly understand what made “Maverick” successful and even seemed to get a bit defensive about the idea that it did so without pandering to woke culture.

(READ: The Left Can’t Seem to Wrap Its Head Around the Success of ‘Top Gun: Maverick’)

But the entire world doesn’t revolve around them, certainly not as much as they think it does. Few people are going to show up to be told how to live their lives by people who have no idea what it is to live in reality or hear about how their traditions and beliefs are evil and are being left behind in the dirt by a more advanced and progressive people who have done nothing but regress into absolute lunacy.

They will, however, show up to watch a movie that is there to tell a thrilling and heartfelt story. In fact, they’ll show up multiple times to see that story.

Make no mistake, Hollywood is watching “Top Gun: Maverick” with great interest.