Actor Tom Cruise has a lot of soul searching to do when it comes to finding his next project. The actor needs a hit.
Cruise doesn’t have the drawing power that he used to have in order to successfully open a non-franchise film at the box office, let alone open a movie. Following The Mummy, Cruise will star in American Made, a true story about a drug smuggler, directed by Doug Liman and also being released by Universal Pictures. The film comes out at the end of September.
All one really needs to do is a look at some of the more recent Cruise films and how they did at the box office along with how they were received by the critics.
2017: The Mummy, 17%, $32 millon opening weekend
2016: Jack Reacher Never Go Back, 37%, $58.6 million
2015: Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, 93%, 155 million
2014: Edge of Tomorrow, 91%, $77.2 million
2013: Oblivion, 51%, $89.1 million
2012: Jack Reacher, 62%, $80.1 million
2012: Rock of Ages, 41%, $38.6 million
2011: Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, 94%, $209.4 million
2010: Knight and Day, 52%, $76.5 million
2008: Valkyrie, 62%, $83 million
2007: Lions for Lambs, 27%, $15 million
2006: Mission: Impossible III, 70%, $133.4 million
2005: War of the Worlds, 74%, $234.2 million
A Certified Fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes has the ability to improve what a blockbuster film will do at the box office. However, sci-fi films that don’t launch a franchise can be a tricky sale. Edge of Tomorrow should have done so much better at the box office. In many ways, it was like the sci-fi version of Groundhog Day except it has aliens.
Cruise isn’t the only big action star to have some box office misfires. Take a look at what Will Smith’s record looks like over the last few years. His films used to be event movies. Nowadays, not so much.
After seeing the first Jack Reacher film, I decided against seeing the sequel when it opened to negative reviews.
The Mission: Impossible series has proven to be a success though the 2011 film opened with a limited run during the first week so don’t let that $12 million opening weekend fool you. You could take Cruise out of the starring role as Ethan Hunt and it would still bring in the dough.
It should be noted though that 2005 saw the infamous couch-jumping incident. Throw in the comments made towards Matt Lauer and I was so turned off by Cruise that I didn’t want to see anything he was in at the time.
Maybe all Cruise needs is to be reunited with his Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman? The previews for American Made look interesting. Here’s how great the makeup and accent is: I wasn’t completely sure that it was Cruise in the role! We have a few months to see what happens with the guy who once starred in Top Gun.
