These are photos of Tom Cruise paying a visit to Jon Stewart yesterday and Jimmy Kimmel a few days ago. Edge of Tomorrow comes out today, and Tom finally relented from his silent, nodding press tour to do some last-minute solo promotion. I get way too much pleasure from seeing Sciento-bodyguard giving the “stern” finger to the masses. So fierce.
This movie comes with (like most Tom Cruise movies) a gigantic studio price tag. It will probably break even after international and DVD sales to balance out what is predicted to be a weak US box-office. Reviews are largely positive, but I don’t know how many people are interested in watching another Tom Cruise alien invasion movie with lots of explosions. Pre-release tracking suggests that The Fault in Our Stars will beat Edge of Tomorrow. Man, if Shailene Woodley beats Tom Cruise, we’ll never hear the end of the sunshine vadge. But I’d be willing to bet that Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent will hold onto the #1 spot for a 2nd weekend.
The Liftmaster was very subdued as he visited Kimmel. Someone has had some intense auditing media prep. In this clip, Tom admits to sleeping about 2 hours per night. Sometimes more, sometimes less. For real? He also says he invented the international press tour while promoting Top Gun:
“It was amazing. We traveled all over the world … Italy, Paris, Japan … I always wanted to travel … It took four months, this tour. We used to do these tours foreign and it would take months. You’d spend weeks in one place, which I loved spending that time. I was working, Scorsese was editing The Color of Money, [there] was an early draft of Rain Man, and I was there in Paris, and I thought, ‘I wanna make movies.'”
[From Jimmy Kimmel Live]
Well … as absurd as it sounds for Tom to claim this “invention,” he’s not wrong. Tom was the biggest movie star of the 1980s and ’90s. Maybe he didn’t actually dream up international movie tours, but he’s the first one who became famous for doing it. Does anyone else feel a dash of nostalgia for the movies that Tom mentioned? Those were unforgettable films with great scripts, not simply “Tom Cruise action movies.” He’s pretty much stuck in one genre now, but it’s still working for the moment.
Tom also admitted to watching a movie every day. Here’s the clip. He’s playing it so safe for this tour.
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet & WENN
Thanks for making the world a better place, Tom. We’d be in the dark ages without international press tours for blockbuster films given huge budgets for promos.
To be entirely fair to the CO$ f***wit, he is one of the few to do HOURS of pressing the flesh with his fans on each tour and for that I give him a tiny amount of credit.
As for the Sea Org slave labour, however…
I just think it’s sort of funny in the context of everything else. But no doubt he ‘werks it’.
It sucks that he is completely mad. The only redeeming thing about him is his work ethic/rep in H’wood. By all accounts, the man works his movies. That was my something nice. On the downside, this b#tch is a boatload of crazy.
Yes, Tom is right up there in accomplishments for humanity. It’s as if he were the love child of Mother Theresa and Jonas Salk.
LMAO! You made me snarf my morning tea….
Crazy as he is, he’s still a good investment. Part of being a movie star is finding appropriate material, and Tom Cruise does what Tom Cruise does well. If you stack his watchable movies up, they far outweigh the crap. A mediocre Cruise movie is still watchable. I give him credit for that.
I agree, he’s still a box office heavyweight imo.
“Heavy-weight” is pushing it these days. My guess is he’s had to cut his fees or will have to. You can’t take upfront percentage points if the best you can do is break even.
Look I’m done with the guy, period. Still it fascinates me that he still tries to do roles better suited to actors in their thirties. He’s desperate not to move into mature roles. One of the (many) bizarre things about him.
@Mia4s Eh, I respectfully disagree, I’m not a fan of his at all or a stan (it makes me laugh that anyone could actually stan for Tom Cruise) but I still think he’s still one of the biggest movie stars of today. *shrug*
•Mia•
I liked Tom back in the day but I’m with you Mia. I think he has more issues that just Co$ and I just ain’t got time for all dat sh!t. Sorry Tom, I raised my standards.
•Fanty•
Yeah, I steer well clear of Tom now. Especially since he and my ex look like brothers! Lol.
Mia- it is odd that he isn’t taking more mature roles. I was watching the Edge trailer at the theater the other day and thinking, this role should have gone to a much younger actor. It’s strange, because Tom had no problems taking more interesting, meaty roles when he was younger. I think he’d get back some of that respect he so dearly wants if he did.
If he wasn’t a good investement he wouldn’t get roles it’s quite simple, Hollywood is not a charity.
•Sighs•
I agree. I think when he was married to Nicole is around the time he started wanting to be taken seriously as an actor but now, it seems like he just wants a pay check which action roles provide in abundance.
Can you imagine if he went back to a few indie roles that have substance and meaning? It honestly would do wonders for him…
Agree with Fanty and Dani.
Also, something nice: as crazy as this dude is, he’s always so gracious to his fans-always signing autographs.
But yeah, the crazy is strong with this one.
The thing that people miss about Cruise is just how expensive he is. If we’re getting a flat $10-15 million for a movie, OK probably still a good investment…but… he had deals on first dollar grosses for years. This means he got paid potential 10s of millions before the studio even got their money. You honestly think a studio will continue to be OK with that for a movie that breaks even? For Mission Impossible sure, but I think Tommy boy may need a little blockbuster reevaluation. And to grow up.
Lady- I’m with you. I just can’t stomach a TC film now. I adore Emily Blunt, but I refuse to see Edge of Tomorrow.
•Kitten•
Yep, I’ll give props when props are due. He IS fantastic with fans.
I just wish *all* his cray cray (both personal and Co$ because I do not believe for one second it’s all Co$) was tamed. He used to take on more interesting and diverse roles.
•Sighs•
Yep. TC is poison to me (he still gets them in the seats so I know I don’t matter! Lol). And it doesn’t help he picks movies that drive BO results (action flicks) because I’m no longer just interested in razzle-dazzle. I want quality entertainment and he stopped doing that years ago…
Agreed and I’m really excited to see this movie! The reviews have been great.
Is it just me or in the past couple of years does Tommy keep make the same kind of movie over and over. He needs smaller character driven films. I agree he needs to borrow a page from Matthew McConaughey and reinvent himself because Tommy used to be a pretty good actor. It is like he is bored and phoning it in.
Tommy needs a McConnaissance make over. He should go for the Magic Mike Sequel…. he can hold everyone’s clothes or something.
“He should go for the Magic Mike Sequel…. he can hold everyone’s clothes or something”
Abbott, your comments are killing me today 😀
Thanks, Dani2 🙂 It’s usually just me who laughs.
Tom Cruise as The Hat Tree.
@Abbott I can guarantee that’s not true, I giggle at most of your comments on here 😉
@TOK LMAO, an Oscar-worthy performance, I’m sure! 😉
Hahahahaha. Oh man. Thanks for the chuckles this morning. They were sorely needed.
He’s kind of right. He didn’t come up with idea nor did he have any say in the planning of the first few international tours he did, but he was one of the first big stars to actually do these tours. Before him the bigger names often skipped the foreign premieres and it was the support actors who did them, or American films only had say, a French premiere if they were somehow related to France. Tom didn’t invent anything, but he did lead the way when it came to actually showing up for your film, which made other actors start doing it, which in turn meant the international press tour became the norm.
Tom Cruise’s claims of “inventing” the international movie press tour remind me of Janice Dickinson’s repeated claims of being the world’s first supermodel. It’s as if Burton and Taylor’s “Cleopatra” and Twiggy never existed.
Don’t forget Al Gore inventing the internet.
LOL
Personally I’m not that interested in the film but I do think Fault in our stars will open huge and will easily take first place in the box office.
It’s gonna be an interesting battle. Fault is tracking anywhere from 30-40 million while Maleficent is tracking at around 35 million.
Honestly rankings at box office don’t matter, it’s the money, but it would be lovely to see Maleficent manage 2 weeks at #1, something Spiderman, Godzilla, X-men all failed to do.
I honestly think Fault could go 40 million + for the weekend as the book has some dedicated fans. I do like the idea that #1 and #2 position could be female led films though.
Fault almost certainly wins the weekend, the tracking is so high. It just might have a worse legs than some films if the teenage audience is rushing to see it this weekend and others are not interested. But it has pretty good reviews and it is summer confer programming and it will get positive headlines for winning the weekend so maybe it does have good legs.
This summer is very competitive, no summer film has been on the top for two weeks. Everything has had high drops as well, we will se if Maleficent does as well. I have heard goof things for Edge of Tomorrow but it will most likely sadly finish 3rd, but there is still a change it will 2nd.
Fault in our stars could easily win the b.o. office this weekend, no doubt! I went to see Edge of Tomorrow last night and although it was a small theater, there were like 11 people in total compared to the Fault movie which was packed every show times (thanks to teenagers and moms). As for this movie, I did not get the hype. It was alright. Some scenes were supposed to be funny but it fell flat and awkward. The audience were very quiet the entire time. I feel like i’ve seen a couple of movies like this before just with different actors. I don’t see it being any better than his recent sci-fi films.
My prediction for b.o. Is:
1. Fault 2. Edge 3. Maleficent
I saw it last night too (not by choice, someone else dragged me there). Not worth the ticket price, maybe OK to spend an evening watch it when it makes it to the Sci-Fi channel.
The ground-hog day premise was annoying, and i couldn’t follow a lot the setup about the different types of aliens and the strategy for overcoming them. There were maybe 10-15 people in the theatre. Tom didn’t really have chemistry with the female lead, who is probably half his age.
Tom has made some terrific movies. Born On the Fourth of July blew me away. So much of his good work has been overshadowed by the CO$. I tend to agree that he probably has shaped what has become the international movie press tour.
Man I forgot about Born…that movie was so disturbing to me. He was great in it, though. Great in Magnolia too.
I saw Born on the Fourth of July. It was a jarring movie and talk about realism. The hospital scenes were harrowing for me. But I am glad I saw it, although a depressing movie. It is everything wrong with war and why we should never embark on a war unless it is an absolute necessity, especially seeing what our vets go through,.
Tom Cruise did an amazing job in it. He actually is an excellent actor, who took risks back in the day and showed more versatility. Magnolia was great. I think he was excellent in Jerry Maguire. His character wasn’t just a one-note character in a rom-com. The movie had different layers to it and so did his character.
He basically does just a lot of action movies now, which some are great and some not so great.
He seems nice, but I agree the cos stuff is super creepy. I also agree that this doesn’t seem theater worthy and/or much different than anything he’s done in years. I’m okay seeing this six months from now or six years from now and, if history holds, may not even feel compelled to finish it…I suppose meh is over used now, so I just say say YAWN.
I get that his $cientology insanity is what turns people off of him but he is a solid actor and I am not a fangirl BUT I do enjoy many of his movies.
Compared to a lot of HWood types, he doesn’t seem to be a horrible human being.
I agree. My husband and I were discussing TC today, and he likes Tom’s action movies. We both agreed that Tom seems to put a lot into his work, is decent to his fans, etc. I’m not into the action genre, but I do like his older work (which was more varied).
I liked his last MI movie, Protocol. I wanted to see it because of scaling the building at the top floors. It was really cool to watch.
I even watched on video, Valkyrie, because my sister saw it at the movies and said it was pretty good. I actually enjoyed it for a home movie. It had enough suspense to it as German colonels are plotting to assassinate Hitler during the height of World War II. It was a suspense thriller, not an action movie.
Always liked Tom, his body of work speaks for itself, but these over the top sci-fi flicks are getting old.
I loooooovvvvveeee Emily blunt. I haaaaattteeee tom cruise. I’m so torn! It’s the tough decisions in life ya know!
I dont understand this movie or what its supposed to be about except coming back to life to fight robots. And Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise. I can never see him as anything other than Tom Cruise, which is his detriment.
As much as I try, I can’t hate on the guy. He seems to really care about the fans, and comes off like a nice guy in interviews.
He’s always watchable in screen
I saw The Edge of Tomorrow last night and I liked it. He wasn’t too old for the part. His character was an supposed to be older PR guy who worked for the military and had never been in any type combat. It was really entertaining. Like Groundhog Day with alien invasion and combat/action. Emily Blunt was pretty tough in the movie, I really liked her.
his PR people prob finally managed to get him medicated, that’s why he’s so much calmer.
Interesting- I’m listening to him on the Nerdist podcast right now and he’s telling the same stories. I guess that’s his PR angle for this film.
I can’t get over how much of a bobble-head he looks like in the first photo. Geez, he’s so tiny, it’s hard to picture him as a action figure. I have also just started reading Jenna Miscavige Hill’s book, so that is fuelling my continued dislike for this COS scion.
hey tom when was the last time you spent any time with your daughter?
Until about 10-15 years ago, movies opened about 3-6 months apart: in the States (first) and then much later in Europe and elsewhere. So there was no need for an international press tour, cause the movie wasn’t opening everywhere at the same time.
Maybe he’s talking about the first Mission Impossible (1996)? I don’t know, was that a huge promo deal?
I have never liked any Tom Cruise movie. Admittedly, I am super picky — comes of being raised on Bette Davis films. But I never understood the appeal of the guy. Oh, A Few Good Men was okay. He’s always come across as way too plastic to me, though, even when I was a kid and had never heard the word “Scientology.” I’ve always thought of him as an animate Ken doll.
Edge in third place
wow…thats a scarey bear pit behind him in the first photo…I doubt they’re fans though..more like professional autograph hunters desperate to sell on.
I don’t know about other movies but his seem to always open oversees, because he has no fan base in the states anymore.
Also, it’s probably really easy to spend hours with your fans when you only make ONE movie per year for your entire career. He’s the least hard working A-List actor in history.