Paramount/Skydance’s long-awaited sequel Top Gun: Maverick will fly on Wednesday, June 24 instead of Friday, June 26. That’s standard for Paramount to take a big summer event tentpole out on a Wednesday, ala their Transformers movies and even the Tom Cruise Steven Spielberg directed 2005 hit War of the Worlds.

The pre-Independence Day weekend is crowded already with Dreamworks Animation’s Trolls World Tour, which will be sneaked for exhibitors at CinemaCon, Warner Bros.’ Jon M. Chu-directed feature adaptation of Broadway musical In the Heights, and Illumination/Universal’s Minions: The Rise of Gru and Ryan Reynolds’ 20th Century Studios comedy Free Guy landing on July 3.

Joseph Kosinski directs Top Gun: Maverick off a script by Ehren Kruger, Eric Warren Singer, and Christopher McQuarrie.