Tom Cruise: The Last Movie Star

Tom Hanks?

Fuck you

Wow! I thought the first one was crap, can't believe there was still interest in this character 36 years later.

He's not the last movie star. That was Elizabeth Taylor.

I know he's a draw for me. Normally I like more serious, intelligent fare, but when I need an action escape, I know that a Tom Cruise movie is going to be a good time. He's something special.

Whether you like him or not, he's one of the last ones who are arguably the "last movie star" who is still making movies.

I think you'd have to consider: Hoffman, Nicholson, Streep, Pacino, DeNiro, and Harrison Ford (it doesn't say "last great" movie star).

All of these folks can reliably open a movie and still draw decent audiences though only Ford makes blockbusters.

If we're talking blockbusters, would RDJ count?

I think Tom and Sandra Bullock are the only ones left that can get a hit with their names alone. Incidentally, why haven’t these 2 co-starred in a movie yet?

Arnold S.

Stallone

Leo - there certainly aren't many left. Barely a handful.

The Rock!

RDJ outside of Marvel? No.

There are a many from that time: Pitt, Roberts, Bullock, etc... and old timers like Pacino, Deniro etc... they have name recognition. DiCaprio is the last real superstar actor. I think Cruise is the last big box office draw movie star, the others don’t have the box office he does.

LOL this movie is a hit because it’s well known IP, not because he can still open films. His last several movies outside the Mission films have flopped.

You scum.

Well R15, you know what they say.

Old movie stars never die.

But they're certainly Faye Dunaway.

We're essentially 40 years past his breakout role in Risky Business, and he is still navigating the movie industry in such a way that he has unprecedented worldwide success. I've aimed plenty of snark his way over the decades, but he is the last of his kind.

R12, he did okay with the Sherlock Holmes films.

Miss Dunaway remains coruscating.

R18 - "Sherlock Holmes I" (RDJ version) did better than OK. WW was nearly $525M on a $90M budget. Alas, that was also 13 years ago. Most of RDJ's movies since the turn of the century have flopped except for the Marvel Universe franchise. He did have success also with "Tropic Thunder" and "Zodiac", but both of those films also had fellow stars carrying the weight. I did enjoy the underrated and nearly forgotten "Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang" from that same era. FWIW, Sherlock Holmes III is in pre-production.

We'll see how that goes, R20.

Former Paramount exec David Kilpatrick has posted a few Paramount memories in the run up to TOP GUN: MAVERICK's release. In one he wrote of Cruise’s appeal.

Cruise’s best performances were always extensions of his driven, all-American go-getter persona — the persona the original Top Gun and Risky Business helped create. As an audience, he had the men aboard as well as the women.

Over time, sex was removed from Tom’s brand. Amidst his peculiar behavior (jumping on Oprah’s very public couch amongst other feats), he lost his female audience. Because of the audience’s distrust over his actions and personal life, he and his star-handlers neutered the brand so that the brand could survive. In a strategized PR move, for the last ten years, Tom has been hiding in plain sight, committing only to sequels of Mission Impossible, Jack Reacher, and now the continuation of Top Gun.

In the public record, Tom has been married to three women, but the truth is, Tom’s true wife, lover, and mistress is his brand. In that regard, Tom has had but one marriage. Despite what the public record might claim, Tom married Tom.

Tom Cruise, more than any other living star I encountered had a vision of what a male movie star should be: confident and magnetic and built. He imagined it and he walked into with bravura. He has worked very, very hard at that dream. He has a gold-standard commitment with everything he does. I remember signing the endless expense invoices for protein powders and organic supplements in pre-production for Top Gun when he was working out all day. Every day. In the wake of such dedication, Tom left behind his birth-name, Mapother, his broken teeth, and possibly, even himself.

Today, the Tom Cruise Brand reclaims its stardom. Tom has cleansed himself of his wobbly public image generated in large part to Scientology. He has become a tabula rasa for a male-audience, an empty slate, on which men can project their own sense of derring-do on the characters Tom portrays.

R8 They did! And it was a big bomb.

Did you forget about Zendaya?

R22 I do miss Tom’s attempts to be a real actor.

I agree about Leo.

Leo’s the only star I can think of today where people say “I’m going to go see the Leonardo DiCaprio movie.”

Are his film successful still other than this one? It seems like he just does Mission Impossible movies.

It has been ages since he tried serious acting. Wonder how he feels about two of his exes having Oscars and still gaining nominations. (Nicole and Penelope Cruz)

[quote]He has become a tabula rasa for a male-audience, an empty slate, on which men can project their own sense of derring-do on the characters Tom portrays.

R22 Good point. It's the same reason the casting of James Bond is so crucial. Many reviewers made your point when Roger Moore was cast as Bond.

What about Melissa McCarthy? You can't deny she had a good run for a while there with hit movies like Bridesmaids and Spy.

Tom Cruise is a weirdo who is involved in a cult, this much is true. That said, he gives the fans what they want. I didn’t like Top Gun all that much, but Maverick was actually fun to watch.

King

Deadline: let’s behold the unstoppable sound barrier breaking power of Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick. The Tom Cruise pic’s fourth weekend stands at $43.1M, which is the third best fourth weekend ever for a major motion picture behind American Sniper ($89.1M) and Avatar ($50.1M). You could even argue it’s the second best for a movie in its fourth weekend, as American Sniper went wide in weekend 4 after a platform holiday release. Heck, Top Gun 2‘s fourth weekend is even higher than Spider-Man: No Way Home which did $32.6M. Top Gun 2‘s ease here is a 17% dip from weekend 3 with an expected Sunday EOD running total of $465.3M after a $15.3M Saturday, +40% over Friday (just $400K shy of Lightyear).

Deadline: let’s behold the unstoppable sound barrier breaking power of Paramount’s Top Gun: Maverick. The Tom Cruise pic’s fourth weekend stands at $43.1M, which is the third best fourth weekend ever for a major motion picture behind American Sniper ($89.1M) and Avatar ($50.1M). You could even argue it’s the second best for a movie in its fourth weekend, as American Sniper went wide in weekend 4 after a platform holiday release. Heck, Top Gun 2‘s fourth weekend is even higher than Spider-Man: No Way Home which did $32.6M. Top Gun 2‘s ease here is a 17% dip from weekend 3 with an expected Sunday EOD running total of $465.3M after a $15.3M Saturday, +40% over Friday (just $400K shy of Lightyear).

Even Cruise is in franchises and sequels now. The difference between him and various younger action heroes is that his fame mostly predates those franchises and sequels and he's not identified with just one recurring role.. It's notable that even he doesn't just do a free-standing movie these days.

I agree that DiCaprio is a star who has managed to retain that status without the crutch of a franchise or superhero films, but I don't know that under 30 people really appreciate or care about him. So it may be a truly vanishing breed.

Does DiCaprio have big box office receipts now?

People don’t care about traditional stardom. Who needs it when six pack and bubble butts can make random dudes from Winston-Salem and Minneapolis into TikTok superstars with tens of millions of drooling dollars and fat bank accounts.

Is not Kim Kardashian a star?

319 million followers on Instagram alone.

In the last week I've seen two rich women on the street that were the spitting image of her. Both highly artificial: one Arab, one Russian. It was freaky.

Cruise is successful, but DiCaprio is the last great movie star. Leo has the respect of all of Hollywood and is both a critical and box-office darling. He's on Cary Grant and Clark Gable's level now. Cruise will never be a respected actor by his peers like Leo. And unless you've won an Oscar, then you can't be considered the Last Movie Star.

George Clooney and Brad Pitt are more movie stars than Cruise because they aren't dependent upon a movie franchise to have success. Everything that Tom has done outside of his Top Gun and Mission Impossible franchises has flopped in the past 20 years.

It’s so sad how all the stars have sold their souls to apple tv and netflix etc. collecting their paychecks while helping destroy moviegoing. Fuck melissa mc carthy and tom hanks etc.

In addition to Cruise, Sandra Bullock, Channing Tatum, and Tom Holland have successfully opened movies in 2022. Tatum, in fact, has had two hits this year based largely on star power.

I consider DiCaprio and Cruise equal as Hollywood stars. I’d say DiCaprio is the last because he’s younger. Who younger is on par or even the same trajectory?

I do agree Cruise is a true movie star, and maybe the last of a certain type, but there are still probably some others. And he's often very good in film even if he's odd in real life. I didn't see Maverick, but I still enjoy the Mission Impossible movies. His resume is impressive. I still think Risky Business was incredibly well done and he's great in it.

I’ve noticed that most movies I’ve liked of the now older big stars are the films from their younger years. Pitt and Cruise IWAV, Legends of the Fall, Seven, Risky Business, Jerry McGuire, even Cocktail had a certain charm. Moneyball was good and a surprise because it came out when everything was already comic book or action films. Overall though, cinema is all action and anything character driven goes straight to streaming services.

R34 Gen Z has been trying to cancel DiCaprio because of his dating history but I’d say he’s still popular among them. They watch whatever movie he’s in.