# Maverick (film)
**Maverick** is a 1994 American Western comedy directed by [Richard Donner](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-donner) and written by [William Goldman](https://www.edgepedia.org/william-goldman), adapted from the 1957–1962 television series of the same name that starred [James Garner](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-garner). Mel Gibson plays Bret Maverick, a charming frontier gambler trying to raise the $25,000 entrance fee for a winner-take-all poker tournament, with Jodie Foster as the scam artist Annabelle Bransford and Garner himself as Marshal Zane Cooper.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) • [2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60389) Released by Warner Bros. on May 20, 1994, the film earned $101,631,272 in the United States and Canada and $183,031,272 worldwide against an estimated $75 million budget.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | May 20, 1994 (United States), Warner Bros.; running time 129 minutes; rated PG[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick) |
| Source | Film adaptation of the television series *Maverick* (1957–1962), created by Roy Huggins and starring James Garner as Bret Maverick[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) |
| Principal cast | Mel Gibson (Bret Maverick), Jodie Foster (Annabelle Bransford), James Garner (Zane Cooper), Graham Greene (Joseph), James Coburn (Commodore Duvall), Alfred Molina (Angel)[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60389) |
| Key crew | Director Richard Donner; screenwriter William Goldman; cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond; composer Randy Newman; editor Stuart Baird; producers Bruce Davey and Richard Donner for Icon[2](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60389) |
| Box office | Opening weekend $17,248,545, then the biggest debut for any film that year to that point; domestic total $101,631,272; worldwide $183,031,272[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-23-ca-61254-story.html) • [3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478) |
| Critical reception | Metascore 62 from 28 critic reviews (17 positive, 11 mixed, 0 negative); Rotten Tomatoes 67% Tomatometer and 71% audience score[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/maverick/critic-reviews/) • [7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maverick) |
| Recognition | Nominated for the Academy Award for Best Costume Design[8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film666894.html) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and premise
Bret Maverick is a card sharp who would rather con an opponent than fight him. To enter a high-stakes, winner-take-all poker tournament aboard a riverboat, he must assemble a $25,000 entrance fee, and the film follows his efforts to collect it while dodging the people he cheats along the way.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) • [9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/20/easy-going-maverick/abc63d32-db56-416d-a3ed-16a67973af30/) In a preliminary card game he wins money from two hopeful contestants, Annabelle Bransford (Foster) and Angel (Molina), making enemies of both, while a wry frontier marshal, Zane Cooper (Garner), trails him.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maverick) The story opens with the hero in a seemingly hopeless predicament, noose around his neck, before flashing back to the events that led there.[10](https://www.americanhumane.org/production/maverick/) • [11](https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/1994/0520/20101.html)
The film's deceptions stack on one another. Roger Ebert, the longtime [Chicago Sun-Times](https://www.edgepedia.org/chicago-sun-times) critic, wrote that the plot "will unpeel layers like an onion, that revelations are made only to be unmasked," and compared its spirit to *The Sting*, the later [Paul Newman](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-newman) and [Robert Redford](https://www.edgepedia.org/robert-redford) con-artist film, rather than Goldman's own *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid*.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994) The ending holds a surprise twist, a plot element the box-office database The Numbers catalogs alongside confidence men, gambling, and Native Americans.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick)
## From series to screenplay
The original *[Maverick](https://www.edgepedia.org/maverick-tv-series)* television series, created by producer Roy Huggins, ran from 1957 to 1962 and made James Garner a star as the footloose gambler Bret Maverick, later joined by [Jack Kelly](https://www.edgepedia.org/jack-kelly-actor) as his brother Bart.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) • [13](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/maverick) Gibson, who had watched the show as a boy, saw it as a project for his production company, Icon Entertainment; he and his business partner Bruce Davey obtained the rights and brought in Goldman, the screenwriter of *Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid* and *The Princess Bride*.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) Goldman reported that after immersing himself in hours of old episodes he found no usable material and "essentially had to write, sob, another original."[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) Goldman gave four reasons for taking the job: he loved the old show, the material was in his wheelhouse, he was convinced within five minutes that Gibson could play the part, and he had not written a Western in twenty-some years.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994)
Donner, who had directed Gibson in the *Lethal Weapon* films, came on as director; he said he had never watched the original series, having been busy as a fledgling director on other 1950s television programs when it aired.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) • [14](https://www.deseret.com/1994/5/20/19109863/maverick/)
## Casting Garner
The central casting question was what to do with the original Bret Maverick. [The Christian Science Monitor](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-christian-science-monitor) noted that studio marketers faced the hurdle that Garner, the most beloved of the show's regulars, was no longer the fresh-faced young man of nearly four decades earlier.[11](https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/1994/0520/20101.html) The solution put Garner back on screen as Marshal Zane Cooper, a wry lawman; Time's Richard Schickel observed that the film offered "Mel Gibson as a new Bret Maverick, the Western gambler, as well as the old TV Maverick, James Garner, now playing a wry frontier sheriff," and that the two could make an audience smile even when the script wandered.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/maverick/critic-reviews/) The Television Academy's encyclopedia notes that Garner appears as Bret's father in the film.[13](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/maverick)
Foster's role marked a departure for the Academy Award-winning actress, known for tough, edgy characters. "It was so unlike anything I had ever done and that's probably the reason why I was attracted to it," she said in a 1994 interview, adding that she wanted to do a comedy that was light-hearted and witty.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994)
## Production and style
The film was shot on Western locations including El Mirage and Lone Pine in California, Lake Powell in Arizona, and Oregon, photographed by the Academy Award-winning cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond.[1](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994) The Washington Post described the result as grand use of wide-screen Western locations, with pastel canyons, dusty frontier towns, and riverboats churning down muddy rivers.[9](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/20/easy-going-maverick/abc63d32-db56-416d-a3ed-16a67973af30/) [Randy Newman](https://www.edgepedia.org/randy-newman) composed the score.[4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick)
The film fills its backgrounds with Western veterans and Donner regulars. Unbilled celebrity cameos include [Danny Glover](https://www.edgepedia.org/danny-glover) from *Lethal Weapon* and [Margot Kidder](https://www.edgepedia.org/margot-kidder) from *Superman*, alongside legendary Western players such as [Denver Pyle](https://www.edgepedia.org/denver-pyle), Dub Taylor, and Bert Remsen; country singer Reba McEntire and Clint Black also appear.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick) Ebert noted that the stunts and showdowns are staged more elaborately than in vintage Western comedies.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994)
## Reception and box office
The film opened at number one on May 20, 1994, with an estimated $17.2 million weekend, the biggest debut for any film that year to that point, playing in 2,537 theaters.[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-23-ca-61254-story.html) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick) The Los Angeles Times reported that reviews were generally mixed but that exhibitors expected strong business from the familiar title and the combined star power of Gibson, Foster, and Garner.[5](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-23-ca-61254-story.html) It went on to gross $101,631,272 domestically, 55.5% of its $183,031,272 worldwide total, against an estimated $75 million budget.[3](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick)
Critical scores settled in favorable territory. Metacritic recorded a Metascore of 62 from 28 reviews, with 17 positive, 11 mixed, and none negative; the Philadelphia Inquirer's 88 called it "the legitimate heir to escapist crowd-pleasers such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and The Sting," while Ebert's 75 praised it as the first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/maverick/critic-reviews/) Rotten Tomatoes lists a 67% Tomatometer from 55 reviews and a 71% audience score, with the critics consensus reading, "It isn't terribly deep, but it's witty and undeniably charming, and the cast is obviously having fun."[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maverick) The film received one Academy Award nomination, for Best Costume Design.[8](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film666894.html)
## Place in the Western revival
Ebert framed the film against the genre's recent history: after years in which no Westerns at all were produced in America, tentative serious entries such as *Silverado*, *Dances with Wolves*, *Posse*, *Unforgiven*, and *Tombstone* had appeared, and *Maverick* arrived as the first lighthearted, laugh-oriented family Western in a long time, one that did not feel the need to justify its existence.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994) Ebert also judged that the movie does not require viewers to have seen the television series, and that at 129 minutes it was probably a little too long.[12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994) Later assessments have kept the film in circulation: it streams on ad-supported and rental platforms, and its blend of poker, con artists, and comic Western action remains its identifying profile.[15](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/maverick/8974/where-to-watch/) • [4](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick)
## References
1. [Maverick (1994), Turner Classic Movies](https://www.tcm.com/articles/188773/maverick-1994)
2. [Maverick (1994), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Catalog/moviedetails/60389)
3. [Maverick (1994), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110478)
4. [Maverick (1994), The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movie/Maverick)
5. ['Maverick' Wins Big Pot at Box Office, Los Angeles Times (May 23, 1994)](https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1994-05-23-ca-61254-story.html)
6. [Maverick critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/maverick/critic-reviews/)
7. [Maverick, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/maverick)
8. [Maverick (1994), Filmaffinity](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film666894.html)
9. [Easy-Going 'Maverick', The Washington Post (May 20, 1994)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/05/20/easy-going-maverick/abc63d32-db56-416d-a3ed-16a67973af30/)
10. [Maverick, American Humane Society](https://www.americanhumane.org/production/maverick/)
11. ['Maverick' Gallops Onto the Big Screen, Christian Science Monitor (May 20, 1994)](https://www.csmonitor.com/layout/set/amphtml/1994/0520/20101.html)
12. [Maverick movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com (May 20, 1994)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/maverick-1994)
13. [Maverick, Television Academy Interviews / Museum of Broadcast Communications Encyclopedia of Television](https://interviews.televisionacademy.com/shows/maverick)
14. [MAVERICK, Deseret News (May 20, 1994)](https://www.deseret.com/1994/5/20/19109863/maverick/)
15. [Where to Watch Maverick (1994), Moviefone](https://www.moviefone.com/movie/maverick/8974/where-to-watch/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Action and adventure films (individual works) › Westerns, 1980 onward*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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