Why are you limiting this to domestic gross?
You point out that MI:3 was “a slight loser domestically”, but it made $397 million on a $150 million budget. You say LAST SAMURAI was “a slight bomb domestically”; it made $456 million on a $140 million budget. You figure the domestic gross for MINORITY REPORT was “not a huge number” – but $358 million is a big fine return on investment from a $102 million budget.
And after “skipping Tropic Thunder and Magnolia because he wasn’t the main star”, you ding him for ROCK OF AGES and LIONS FOR LAMBS, where he wasn’t the main star. You rightly count KNIGHT AND DAY against him as a bomb – in that it made only $261 million on a $107 million budget – but you don’t fully factor in just how big a hit GHOST PROTOCOL was, earlier this very year, clearing $694 million on a scant $145 million budget.
Near as I can tell, that’s the biggest gross ever for a movie with Cruise as the star: bigger than the half-billion-plus WAR OF THE WORLDS brought in, bigger than the half-billion-plus MI:2 brought in, you name it, he topped it.