Mission: Impossible 7’s Poor Box Office Proves The Secret Truth Of Tom Cruise’s Career

Summary Tom Cruise’s success at the box office is not solely due to his star power. The Mission: Impossible and Top Gun franchises make up a significant portion of his earnings.
Despite his status as a movie star, Cruise has experienced his fair share of disappointments and underwhelming films throughout his career.
Cruise’s commitment to unique projects and his willingness to take on physically demanding roles contribute to his appeal as a movie star, beyond just financial success.
The relatively mediocre box office performance of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning surprised some observers, given the popularity of the wider franchise and star Tom Cruise’s status, yet the movie proves a surprising truth about Cruise’s career. Since the 1980s, Cruise has been regarded as one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood. Across multiple genres, his films have consistently maintained his profile and proved popular with audiences. And yet, behind this undeniable success, the reality of Cruise’s career is more complicated than it seems.
Thanks to a string of hits, Tom Cruise has secured his status as a movie star for the ages. Iconic blockbusters, such as Top Gun, Days of Thunder, and the Mission: Impossible series established the correlation between Cruise and box office performance. Meanwhile, roles in acclaimed dramas like A Few Good Men, Born on the Fourth of July, and Jerry Maguire demonstrated that Cruise had the acting chops to match his action credentials. This combination understandably cemented the notion that Cruise is a major draw for audiences. The truth, however, is not quite so straightforward.
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Proves Tom Cruise Doesn’t Guarantee Box Office
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Given his status as a movie star, it has long been assumed that Cruise’s involvement in a project goes a long way towards guaranteeing box office success. After all, Cruise’s movies have made over $11.5 billion at the global box office, making him one of the highest-grossing movie stars of all time. However, these statistics mask a surprising truth about Cruise – that he is not the guarantee of financial return that his status would suggest.
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In fact, Cruise owes much of his success to a relatively small number of projects. The Mission: Impossible series, for instance, has generated over $4 billion across seven entries, while Top Gun has made just short of $1.8 billion in just two movies. These two franchises, despite representing a fraction of Cruise’s output, make up approximately half of all his box office generation. Without them in the equation, Cruise’s box office would seem significantly less impressive. This in turn suggests that Dead Reckoning’s relatively disappointing $568 million is more representative of his career than hugely successful outliers like Top Gun: Maverick.
Tom Cruise Has Actually Had Loads Of Disappointments
There’s no denying that Cruise’s Mission: Impossible franchise and recent legacy sequel success with Top Gun 2 have made a huge impact on the global box office. However, their outsize effect should not mask the fact that Cruise is just as capable of leading a box office bomb as he is a hit. Over the course of his career, the 61-year-old star has featured in several high-profile failures, such as the 2017 The Mummy. Furthermore, he has also starred in several projects that, rather than outright flopping, massively underwhelmed based on expectations.
Releases such as Oblivion, Edge of Tomorrow, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, and American Made all failed to make a major impact at the box office, despite Cruise’s star billing. In truth, they are arguably more indicative of the actor’s average performance than standout projects like Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible – Fallout. All this suggests that, while Cruise’s commitment to independent standalone projects is admirable, it should not be a given that the actor’s appearance provides any indication as to the eventual success of a movie.
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Why Cruise Is Still A Great Movie Star
The truth that Tom Cruise has probably had more disappointments than runaway successes seems difficult to square with his status in the industry. However, this fact does not change the fact that Cruise remains an era-defining movie star. In an age dominated by franchises, Cruise stands apart as an advocate for solo projects. Except for the Mission: Impossible series and Top Gun, he has been generally reluctant to appear in sequels. This means that many Cruise releases do not have the security of a guaranteed audience to fall back on – explaining what may initially seem like unremarkable performances.
It’s also true that Cruise challenges the notion that financial return is the only thing that defines a star. As his career has developed, Cruise has pushed himself to complete ever more impressive physical feats, securing his status as one of the most daring performers in the industry. It can be tempting for commentators to judge success and failure based on the cold reality of box office numbers. However, even though Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning is more indicative of Cruise’s appeal than other projects, his breathtaking stuntwork and performance highlight that other factors are also at play.