Hammond On Cannes: Robert Redford’s Brave New Role … 
Hot Trailer: Jennifer Aniston And Jason Sudeikis’ … 
Warner Bros Tells Space Story, From The Bra Designers Who … 
Brad Pitt’s Plan B Banner Promotes Jeremy Kleiner To … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Don Jon’ 
Billy Crystal-Starring Comedy From Matt Nix & Larry … 
RATINGS RAT RACE: ‘Dancing With The Stars’ … 
Hammond On Cannes: A New Day Comes To The Fest As HBO and … 
Cannes: Fleming Reflects And Finds Talented Trio A Breath … 
Hot Trailer: ‘Man Of Steel’ 
Former Digital Domain CEO & Auditors Sued For Fraud By … 
ABC’s ‘Nashville’ Undergoes Production … 
CBS Wins Season & Ties Sweep In Demo; ABC Tops Adults … 
Alki David Agrees To End Name Games With Aereo And Barry … 
Next-Gen Xbox One Unveiled With Content Including … 
Cannes: Weinstein Co Acquires Keanu-Reese Sci-Fi Pic … 
Hot Trailer: ‘The Wolverine’ 
Ang Lee Departs FX Pilot ‘Tyrant’ 
How Many Times Does Seth MacFarlane Have To Say No To The … 
Cannes: Stanley Weiser To Script ‘Three Graves … 
Cannes: Deadline Crashes Palais Forum With Costa Gavras, … 
EXCLUSIVE: When Paramount Pictures and Skydance Productions were making the green light decision on the $150 million budget Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol following the lackluster $76 million domestic gross on Knight & Day, some wondered if Tom Cruise was still in the conversation as one of Hollywood’s most bankable male stars. The answer is yes. Today, the film will reach a global gross of $603 million, making Ghost Protocol the highest-grossing film of Cruise’s long career. It surpassed any film that Cruise made during his long relationship with Paramount, beating the $591.7 million gross turned in by War Of The Worlds.
Cruise has starred in five of Paramount’s top 10 grossing films in the last 15 years, with M:I4 falling in behind Titanic‘s $1.8 billion, Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull‘s $786.6 million, Forrest Gump‘s $677.4 million, and Iron Man 2‘s $623 million. The film has a strong chance to pass the Iron Man sequel. Studio insiders tell me that the film crosses the $400 million mark internationally today, and has already grossed $36 million in China after being released six days ago. We’ve seen how much Cruise put into the film as an actor — running up and down the Dubai skyscraper was something no star outside of Jackie Chan would do. Beyond, that, he spent 16 days promoting the film, covering nine countries on six continents. Cruise, who fought for JJ Abrams to make his feature directing debut on Mission: Impossible 3 (they produced Ghost Protocol together) also embraced Brad Bird to make his live-action directing debut this time around.
There will obviously be another Mission: Impossible, but those talks haven’t really gotten underway yet. Cruise, who opens in June in Rock Of Ages for Warner Bros, is shooting the Christopher McQuarrie-directed One Shot for Paramount (releasing February 2013), then goes right into the Joseph Kosinski-directed Oblivion for Universal in March (releasing July 2013), followed by the Doug Liman-directed All You Need Is Kill for Warner Bros. Sequels often make it bigger to draw bigger numbers, and Jeremy Renner and the supporting cast helped, but with Ghost Protocol, Cruise has certainly answered questions about his place in the movie star food chain.
‘Mission: Impossible 4′ Sets Franchise Record With $571M Worldwide So Far
Loading ...
Nobody works harder. Mr. Cruise deserves it. And most importantly and probably mostly overlooked is that he is a really great actor. I’m not in the business so I am commenting simply as a fan of film, but clearly I speak for many fans out there because we just can’t get enough it seems. I might add, his decision to partner with the team over at Bad Robot was KEY to these last couple MI films turning out the way they have. Keep it coming.
i agree with you. Can’t get enough of him and I’m in the business. This guy is one of the nicest hardest working Artists in the business. Just an absolute lovely guy. Gets a bad rap, but I’m sure it’s just out of jealousy.
Way to go Tom! Keep up the good work
yes, he is a hard worker, but he let his image veer totslly out of control when he stepped away from Pat Kingsley. I hope every morning when he wakes up, he says a silent prayer of thanks for terry press having come into his life when she did. she and vollman believed in him and in Valkyrie and helped move him out of eye-patch hell. he deserves it. welcome back tom.
i don’t know where is that Financial crisis that they talking about every day!!!
Kudos to them. I wonder if this means “1906″ is a go now?
Eh, I’m pretty sure you’re talking about unadjusted numbers, especially when you are comparing stuff from the 1980s. He was a much bigger deal way back when than he is now.
Argh. Did you walk ten miles uphill each way to get to school in the snow, too?
Was he a bigger deal?l The whole industry was different. No movie – I mean, literally, NO MOVIE – is on 1000 screens in its 24th week any more like Top Gun was. The top 20 movies of all time in unadjusted gross skew dramatically to pre-1983.
He’s as big a deal now, I think: he had two huge hits in the 80s, but Born on the 4th and Colour of MOney and Cocktail were middling, not massive. Take the last movies he’s starred in and compare them to Top Gun and the six that followed. It’s about the same.
Yes, so true… the business has drastically changed. I remember comments out there that he was done, finished… but he persevered and I’ll still give him price of admission Tom delvivered. He had the help of a brilliant director and strong cast. At the end of the day it’s still Tom that made this work. Lot’s of hateful, bitter people out there… but that is understandable given the disastrous state our country is in. If more people had Tom’s drive and spirit then we wouldn’t be a country of victims and haters. We need more successes and less griping… more perosnal accountability to make change happen.
Good for him, it was a solid fun film and he put in the effort onscreen that many others wouldn’t, even if personally I don’t think it was the best of the four. It was still better than most of last Summer’s tentpole releases.
His haters will still crawl out the woodwork but let’s not pretend anyone else in that film’s cast drew anyone in and made it a success and even Brad Bird’s work only goes so far. He’s had his rough patch but if other folks in Hollywood can get a turnaround so can Cruise.
Note to Tom’s people: if you have to keep encouraging articles about how he is back on top, he is probably not back on top. You are trying too hard and it’s uncomfortable; let the work speak.
Yes he’s proven himself…as the star of Mission Impossible. If the concept of any of his next few films doesn’t click he will bomb, disappoint, “what went wrong?”, etc. It’s the new reality, concept is king, not the star.
He is clearly interested in blockbuster over substance, and I guess that’s fine. He wants to be a blockbuster star, not an actor, that’s OK. However two back-to-back solidier roles in dystopian sci-fi movies seems a bit odd for a supposedly big star with lots of choices.
Why so desperate all the time if things are going so well?
Dude, you’re obsessed with TC. You’ve posted this exact same comment on one of the other stories about TC. It’s kind of sad.
Go post about how Johnny Depp is gonna play yet another weird character in make-up this summer in Dark Shadows. These 50 something guys are on their way out. They need to strike while the iron is hot. But you don’t care, you are here just to trash Cruise. Pathetic!
He entertains. He has made several “substance” ??? movies..and did well…but really…isn’t it more fun to watch MI?
I’m not someone who bangs the drum for Cruise, but he has nothing to prove as an actor. He’s shown his talent on that front in “Valkerie” and “Born on the Fourth of July”, to name just two films.
Very hard working guy. Very nice guy to his crew. Sorta weird – but so is every single celeb – it comes with the culture. Mainly how we, the non celebs, treat them.
The hardest working actors in the business – like him and a few of the other mega-stars that have had 20+ year careers – it’s not a fluke. They are machines.
Lesson to screenwriters: if the scenes themselves are fun enough, the logic that connects them is entirely irrelevant, which this film gloriously proves. Bravo to the studio execs who did not kill the party by insisting that perhaps ONE person would have noticed somebody climbing on the skyscraper, or that a train car fully loaded with high tech commando gear might not just happen to be waiting around Moscow for the heroes if they should just happen to need it.
To your point: I don’t even remember a train scene in the movie but I do remember having a great time in the theater.
As a MI fan of 40 years, it’s always been established that IMF agents are the elite of spies, and there are networks of background IMF agents in the planning process, who exist in the country that they need carry out their Mission in. In one original episode of fool-em, there is a mock-replica submarine in a communist country bloc country that IMF uses to coerce a confession. So how in the world are they going to get a submarine replica in a country in two days? because it’s been planned ahead. IMF top agents come in like movie stars to run the show. They execute the plan, and have already planned the execution. Barney is always working between Missions to set up the next one. The man is industrious and super productive, you know.
So, in MI4, the train is just like the submarine replica, it’s always running in the background, and IMF superstars use it when need it.
So in the IMF world, it’s totally logical.
By the way, this was the best MI so far, only because of Brad Bird. If he doesn’t come back, it’ll be back to mediocre again with another director. Unless it’s directed by James Cameron.
You’re trying too hard.
Seriously I just stopped reading your post after the third sentence, you and the Martin Landau need to get over the fact that no one is making M:I today the same way it was made in the 60s.
A real movie star!
I have no vested interest in saying this, but I have to say, I really dig Tom Cruise. The guy’s a movie star in the best sense of the descriptive, and a total professional. Good on ya, Tom.
Validate his place? More like REVALIDATE his place. Yes he’s a cuckoo bird. A huge cuckoo bird with tons of YES people around him. That’s what makes this so called ‘comeback’ that much more interesting. Haters can hate and I’m sure they’ll come up with some half ass thought up excuses while MI did so well. Cruise is the quintessential movie star. Oh yeah, he can act too
MI:4 had no real competition. Tintin? Pfft. The next time Cruise opens a film against some big hitters, it’ll get buried. All this talk of his comeback is a little premature.
Can you really limp your way to $600+M in box office in the middle of the worst recession in history?
+1 internetz
It opened against Sherlock 2 and Robert Downey Jr. is one of the biggest stars out there right now.
Your comments are absurd. You take IMax numbers out of the equation and MI4 opens at a paltry 29m. And the films still manages to 191M + that’s old school star power
what is so exclusive here?? everybody knew this and everybody love this,and tom is THE MAN.but he is just getting started.
first he is going to prove naysayers that he can play both aging crazy rocker in rock of ages and jack reacher in one shot.
then he will finally attack one bilion movie club with oblivion and all you need is kill!!!
Tom Cruise is no quitter. He has plowed through the rough parts of the storm and emerges on the other side victorious.
or when you pay 5,000 Bollywood extras to show up to your premiere, they call it a Tom Cruise in the US.
It was the quality of the movie more than anything that made this a hit. Many reviewers calling it the best of the series and great word of mouth from audiences. Cruise didn’t hurt it necessarily, but audiences were initially wary, in part because of him and in part because of the lackluster response to the last two. Once word of mouth hit, all was golden
All Cruise needs is quality control. Used to be audiences would accept him in anything, now they only want to see him in something good.
The success of this film was from much more than one person.
Hay que ser claros y precisos con el tema la carreara de Cruise lleva treinta años,y los numeros esta ahi,no mienten ni me lo estoy inventando yo,pero ninguna estrella se ha manteniso de la forma como lo ha hecho Tom cruise,es cierto que despierta amores y odios porque cuando se ha llegado taaan lejos es obvio que ello suceda,si mantiene su nivel hasta sus 60 años sera una verdadera leyenda del cinematografo contemporaneo y toda una marca,lo mas cercano a la coca cola y en cuestines de marketing no es nada desproporcional lo que estoy escribiendo…gracias
What he said.
Just be happy!!!…*simples*
I think he’s wonderful…and not at all desperate. Really energetic.
Phew..I get tired just thinking about all he does, and will do.
Yes, please — 1906!!! Original script written by James Dalessandro and rewritten by the Benay brothers, Aaron and Matthew. All wonderful, talented guys! Crossing my fingers. Ramon Gonzalez
As a film fan, I really enjoy the MI Franchise and this last one is arguably the best of the series.
But I find myself leaning toward Ella’s comment. I am waiting for the day Cruise announces a big screen project he will direct AND star in. Doesn’t even have to be a blockbuster. Maybe a small dramatic role.
But surely he has proved himself as a star and a good actor.
The next challenge for a man with his resume would naturally be to take on directing. If only for one film. What does he have to lose?
Still…Thanks Tom. Great entertainment over the years
He not only acts but has been producing all his movies through his production company he established around 2000. That includes all his MI sequals and yes, includes MI 4.
I’m gonna call BS on this report. No way MI4 is Cruise’s most popular movie.
You have to adjust these numbers for inflation otherwise they completely skew towards the new stuff.
Top Gun was a phenomenon. I’d have to think remains his biggest hit.
Sure, but then you’ll have to adjust everyone ELSE’S box office numbers for inflation as well if you want to take that route. Or look at attendance. Either way, a film adjusted from 26 years ago that was a huge mega-hit then is definitely going to outgun a newer one, but it really doesn’t diminish the amount that Protocol has earned now.
Besides, a phenomenon is not something that you have every year in your CV. Otherwise it wouldn’t BE a phenomenon.
But even if you do adjust for inflation (as Box Office Mojo helpfully already does) then Ghost Protocol is STILL his 9th highest grossing movie in the US and would probably remain pretty high overall even taking his earlier hits into account.
I think all box office comparisons should be made using adjusted-for-inflation numbers. These headlines make it seem like more people are going to see the individual movies they’re making now and it just ain’t true.
MI4 is not a bigger hit than Top Gun; Avatar was not a bigger hit than Jaws or The Sound of Music or Gone With the Wind; any news article saying so is misleading its readers.
Tom Gun’s worldwide gross in 1986 was $353,816,701 (per boxofficemojo.com)
If you want to consider adjusted numbers then one must also consider competition. There are far more films from far more distributors released across various (new) platforms, all competing for the mass audience. Adjust the numbers, but also consider the explosive access to content that never existed in the 80′s. It is kinda more impressive that MI4 could do this well in the current content aggregation/distribution ecosystem.
Tom Cruise will get what he put into it, and I heard he works pretty hard so he will probably do very well for a long time.
The media made too much of Big Tom’s couch-jumping antics in the first place, as they overstated the supposed “flop” of MI:3 (almost $400 million globally). His only real misfire, IMO, was Knight and Day, which was unwatchable.
@jaytom: Have you ever *been* to Dubai? It’s like an empty shopping mall. It’s entirely possible that a guy can climb outside the building and not be noticed, especially that high up. As is the train car, many of which are probably peppered through out the world for IMF agents in the field. You’re just reaching for something to hate aren’t you. LOL.
All that said, I never stopped rooting for the man, and I’m glad to see him come out the other side, back on top.