In an era where streaming is the king, and going to the cinema has gotten expensive to the point where it truly has become a luxury to take your family for a day at the cinemas, movies need that special factor for people to really be wanting to see it in theatres instead of just waiting for it to drop in digital.
A couple of decades ago, movie stars like Denzel Washington, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Tom Cruise could open a film solely on star power. Audiences didn’t need to know the plot—if Denzel was in it, they were going. Today, that kind of name recognition barely exists. While actors like Chris Pratt or Chris Hemsworth are considered “stars,” their films often rely more on franchise appeal than their individual draw. People don’t necessarily see Guardians of the Galaxy or Jurassic World for Chris Pratt. He just happens to be in it.
Hollywood can no longer rely on big-name stars to produce consistent box office hits, and even established franchises often fail to recapture the magic they once had. Studios are learning the hard way that “movie star” status no longer automatically translates to ticket sales. Films like Blade Runner 2049, led by Ryan Gosling, and Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, starring Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, resulted in net losses of over $100 million each for their respective studios.
The likes of Channing Tatum and Scarlett Johansson can no longer sell a romcom as their $100 million film Fly Me to the Moon managed to earn only $42 million at the box office —despite decent reception from both the audiences and critics. Heck, even Brad Pitt is no longer a sure bet, with both Ad Astra and Babylon turning out to be major flops.
Amidst all this ever-present uncertainty looming over moviegoing and the challenges theatres and movies face to bring people to theatres, Tom Cruise’s name remains a true anomaly in modern times.
Cruise is a movie star in the classic sense, the last of the line of movie stars who are capable of selling a film based on his name alone, and that mere fact is just so remarkable when you take into account the sheer longevity of his career and his impressive box office fanfare.
For nearly 40 years, Cruise has remained at the top, outgrossing many of his peers globally, and he has managed to do so while pushing the cinematic boundaries and the scope of storytelling further as the years have gone by.
Mission: Impossible and Top Gun are not merely franchises—they are the Tom Cruise show, and they don’t need a special selling point; CRUISE IS IT, HE IS THE MAIN EVENT. No other actor could carry them in the same way and you can even argue that those films solely exist to showcase his commitment to thrilling, theatrical experiences.
The idea of a “Tom Cruise movie” means something to the audience—they relate it to Cruise himself delivering practical death-defying stunts, high-octane action, and a relentless cinematic spectacle.
Top Gun: Maverick is the prime example of that, as it arguably is the most important theatrical release post-COVID.
Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick Brought Moviegoing Back
After a couple of years of theatre closures, social distancing, bankruptcies, and audience fragmentation during the pandemic, Top Gun: Maverick did what no film before it could: get general audiences, especially older viewers, back to the cinema. While films like Tenet tried and failed to “save” theaters, Cruise’s sequel succeeded by focusing on pure spectacle and emotional resonance.
Paramount cleverly released the original Top Gun on Netflix ahead of the sequel’s launch, using streaming as a marketing tool rather than a crutch. Nostalgia brought people in, but the stunning practical effects, exhilarating aerial sequences, and Cruise’s enduring charisma kept them engaged. The film didn’t just appeal to Marvel’s usual younger demographic—it reached people who hadn’t set foot in a theater in years.
Cruise put his trust in the movie and the theatrical experience, and his gamble paid off. Maverick became a global hit and a cultural event, even outgrossing Avengers: Infinity War domestically. It proved that theatrical movies still matter—and a single actor, Tom Cruise, was the catalyst.
Tom Cruise is Now Once Again the Global Focal Point of a Cinematic Event with MI8.
Now, in 2025, as Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning (aka MI8) nears release, Cruise is once again at the center of global movie buzz. The anticipation for this film—driven by behind-the-scenes glimpses of Cruise clinging to the wing of a 1930s biplane at 10,000 feet—is more fevered than for any other film released this year so far.
In a time when going to the movies feels like a luxury, Cruise’s films still warrant the price of a ticket. His movies are events. Experiences. Reasons to leave the couch.
Growing up, I never cared much for action movies—I was always more into superheroes, dinosaurs, and magic. Even my interest in space movies came from shows like Ben 10 and Justice League having a watchtower in space. But if it was a Tom Cruise movie—whose ads you have been seeing all across your TV, like War of the Worlds, Edge of Tomorrow, or Knight and Day—it always felt exciting.
We didn’t go to the theater much when I was younger due to financial reasons. But Tom Cruise was one of those rare phenomena for which my dad would make an exception. He always believed that watching this man do his thing on the big screen was worth the price of admission. I remember experiencing that for the first time with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. Watching Cruise hang off the Burj Khalifa and run through a sandstorm in Dubai truly felt like something that had to be experienced in a theater, and I was so glad I got to have that experience.
Since then—and even now, almost a decade and a half later—I still agree with that sentiment. Nobody does it like Tom Cruise. He isn’t just the last movie star; he might be the last reason we believe in movie stars at all.