It’s Burn Notice - The Movie
Because your opinion was that he was stupid for daring to even think that caring that the movie is not like the book. That’s declaring the topic to be beneath you.
Yes, but most of that stuff was a long time ago. The question is if he’s still pulling in people now. It’s possible, of course, but most everyone I know thinks that he sucks now.
Actually I did a little IMDBing the other day just on that subject to compare Cruise’s estimated budgets vs. domestic gross. Going back 16 years (skipping Tropic Thunder and Magnolia because he wasn’t the main star), we got.
Rock of Ages: 75mil budget/35m domestic (BOMB, but it was a bomb from the get-go and not even Lawrence Olivier could have saved it)
MI:IV: 145/209 (Probably did real well overseas too)
Knight and Day: 117/76 (Bomb)
Valkyrie: 75/83 Middling success, but I’m sure it did real well overseas
Lions for Lambs: 35/14 (Smaller film and poorly marketed)
**MI:3: ** 150/134 (Slight loser domestically)
**War of the Worlds: ** 132/234 (Big success, but Cruise wasn’t really the sole draw)
**Collateral: ** 66/100 (Success, though you could say he co-headlined)
The Last Samurai: 140/111 (Slight bomb domestically)
Minority Report: 102/132 (Not a huge number, but made its money back and then some)
MI:II: 125/215
Vanilla Sky: 68/100 (Surprisingly made a decent profit)
Eyes Wide Shut: 65/55 (Slight bomb domestically, but made 160 worldwide)
Jerry Maguire: 50/153 (Uber success)
**MI: I ** 80/180 (Yeah)
1.425 B - Estimated budget
1.697 B - Domestic Gross
Though most of that came from the earlier years. Of his last five movies, 2 were bombs, 1 was a big hit, 1 was a decent success with probably greater overseas reach, and 1 was a small budget loser.
His success to failure ratio is getting smaller. His pull certainly has gotten weaker.
Based on this thread, I started the first book. Wow. The opening scene with Reacher and the cops needs someone who looks intimidating from the outside, not knowing anything else about him. How is that Cruise? And then from there, we go to the prison scene. Again, having a tough time seeing Cruise being able to do that without changing everything to fit him and then it’s not Reacher.
So, I get what people are saying about TC’s ability to be Reacher.
DXZero - Wow! I didn’t realize that Cruise had slowed down that much in domestic pull. I wonder if worldwide is what helps? (http://www.the-numbers.com/people/TCRUI.php)
Yeah I was kind of shocked too. Those numbers may not be completely accurate, but they at least give you a sense.
Of course he had nowhere to go but down. His first big starring role, Risky Business…$6 million budget, $63 million domestic gross. I’m assuming thats not inflation adjusted either.
Yeah those are some insane overseas grosses. The Last Samurai for instance, basically tripled its domestic box office. As did Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol
He still can put butts in the seats, not just American butts.
Actually, I just re-read One Shot, and he does actually borrow a muscle car. A Mustang, to be precise. So as long as he doesn’t roll into town in it, we’re fine on that score.
I also ran across this quote from Lee Child on Amazon froma few years ago.
“Do you not know that King Kong the first was just three foot six inches tall? He only came up to Faye Wray’s belly button! If God could do the tricks that we can do he’d be a happy man!”
From The Stunt Man, with Peter O’Toole. 
I have read every book in the series and will definitely not be going to see this movie with Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher. I think Liam Neeson or The Rock would have been much better choices. Though I can also agree with Liev Schrieber and Viggo Mortenson.
They will have to completely change who the character is. They can film Cruise on top of a step ladder and he still won’t look intimidating. I can only read one of those books about every six months or so, as the plots are so over-the-top, so I don’t have much invested in this, but Tom Cruise? Really?
I think that Swedish actor Mikael Persbrandt might be able to do it. He is more or less typecast for such roles.
Yes. OR Alexander Skarsgård. IMO, he would have been perfect. Height, build, and perfectly comfortable playing either good guy or villain.
Not Alexander Skarsgård. He’s too short and too thin and too little menacing looking. His father, had he been younger, would have been better.
Wrong guy.
What about the other 6’5" Vince? D’Onofrio? Or is he too old.
There are many in the 6’4", 6’5" range. It’s ridiculous to lead with that, then wind up at “and therefore, we’re going with that big box office shrimp over there.”
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.
That cute face could never be appropriate on Jack Reacher. 
Sure it would. That’s who I pictured when I read the first book last week.