Glen Powell said he almost went broke waiting for 'Top Gun: Maverick' to debut because Tom Cruise didn't want it on a streamer. Then it made $1.5 billion.

• Glen Powell said he was "waiting for my life to change" when Tom Cruise delayed releasing "Maverick."
• Powell said this led to his bank account "depleting" during the pandemic.

Glen Powell said his bank account was "depleting" as he waited for "Top Gun: Maverick" to arrive in theaters after Tom Cruise delayed the sequel's premiere during the pandemic.

The actor played Lt. Jake "Hangman" Seresin alongside Cruise, Val Kilmer, Miles Teller, and Jon Hamm in 2022's "Maverick," and his performance as the arrogant pilot won audiences over.

In an interview published in The Hollywood Reporter last week, Powell said he was having financial difficulties after Cruise refused to have "Maverick" released on a streaming service. During the pandemic, most studios delayed filming and releasing their movies or put them on streamers while theaters were closed.

"I'd never made any significant amount of money on a movie, including 'Top Gun,' and I was depleting a bank account to a point where my accountant was like, 'This pandemic cannot last much longer,'" Powell said.

Cruise had faith in the film, which is why he wanted to ensure its theatrical release. But it was difficult for Powell at the time.

"Tom was already Tom; I was waiting for my life to change," he said.

It seems it was worth the wait. According to Box Office Mojo, "Top Gun: Maverick" raked in $1.495 billion worldwide.

Powell saw similar success with a theatrical versus streaming release with the recent R-rated rom-com "Anyone but You," which features Sydney Sweeney.

"We had offers from every streamer, and it was guaranteed [paydays] and a much bigger budget, but Syd and I really have a very similar worldview about Hollywood," Powell said.

"We said, 'If we make this on a streamer, it won't have any cultural impact,'" he said. "And everyone was saying rom-coms were dead theatrically so we knew we could get hosed, but we thought, 'Let's take the gamble,' because what if we could bring them back?"

That gamble paid off because the sleeper hit made $219 million (according to Box Office Mojo) against an estimated $25 million budget, which was likely helped by Powell's and Sweeney's star power and their embrace of rumors that they were secretly dating in real life.

Powell said: "Even if it's me taking my clothes off on the side of a fricking cliff, it's like, you got to do some shit in here that makes noise."