By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Close
Mandalore76 on 12 April 2018
Edit Thread
Insidb said:
Mandalore76 said:

What Tom Cruise movies have gotten popular solely on the basis of Tom Cruise being in them?  Are you crediting the success of the entire Mission Impossible franchise to just "Tom Cruise star power"?  Because if you remove the Mission Impossible films from the equation, War of the Worlds is the only film released within the last 20 years with him as the featured actor to appear in his top 10 grossing films. 

Rank Title (click to view) Studio Lifetime Gross / Theaters Opening / Theaters Date
1 War of the Worlds Par. $234,280,354 3,910 $64,878,725 3,908 6/29/05
2 Mission: Impossible II Par. $215,409,889 3,669 $57,845,297 3,653 5/24/00
- Austin Powers in Goldmember
(Cameo)		 NL $213,307,889 3,613 $73,071,188 3,613 7/26/02
3 Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol Par. $209,397,903 3,555 $12,785,204 425 12/16/11
4 Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation Par. $195,042,377 3,988 $55,520,089 3,956 7/31/15
5 Mission: Impossible Par. $180,981,856 3,012 $45,436,830 3,012 5/22/96
6 Top Gun Par. $179,800,601 1,531 $8,193,052 1,028 5/16/86
7 Rain Man MGM $172,825,435 1,590 $7,005,719 1,248 12/16/88
8 The Firm Par. $158,348,367 2,393 $25,400,000 2,393 7/2/93
9 Jerry Maguire Sony $153,952,592 2,531 $17,084,296 2,531 12/13/96
10 A Few Good Men Col. $141,340,178 2,201 $15,517,468 1,925 12/11/92

If anything, films that feature Tom Cruise in the leading role often get overlooked because of his religious beliefs (Scientology).  Mission Impossible escapes this, because it's a film franchise spanning back to 96' with a segment of its fanbase that dates back even further to the tv series.  An original standalone film like Edge of Tomorrow didn't have that benefit.  Consequently, it suffered a 3rd place finish in its opening weekend and probably didn't make its money back at the box office despite it being a great film.  I may be nitpicking, but Tom Cruise couldn't have been a worse choice of an example of a movie coasting through the box office on the attachment of Tom Cruise's name alone.

 

More on topic though, I saw Black Panther last night and enjoyed it very much.  I recall telling my wife after seeing Black Panther's 1st on screen appearance in Captain America:  Civil War that I would watch a whole movie featuring that character.  I was not disappointed. 

I don't think it's Scientology; I just think the IPs he's in just aren't as big as the megafranchises.

That's even more to my point though.  A statement was made that Tom Cruise appearing in a movie makes that movie popular.  That may have been the case in the late 80's-early 90's, but that simply isn't true any more.  Look at "The Mummy" franchise for example.  Every single one of the Brendan Fraser films out-grossed the Tom Cruise led reboot from last year at the domestic box office (without even adjusting for inflation).  Granted, there were a lot of things wrong with last years reboot.  But, the Brendan Fraser trilogy took a severe drop in quality after the first one.  So the fact that "The Mummy:  Tomb of the Dragon Emperor", the 3rd Brendan Fraser Mummy film, outgrossed a reboot launching with "Tom Cruise star power" really says something about whether or not that "star power" is actually adding anything to a movie's gross at this point in time.