You know who’s had a surprisingly good run, Even though she’s been intent on trying to make indie films that sometimes don’t pan out? Jennifer Aniston. Even some of her crappy micro budget movies have panned out, relative to production budget.
http://www.the-numbers.com/person/5370401-Jennifer-Aniston#tab=acting
:eek::eek::eek:
He just compared DDL to Tom Cruise. One actor never plays the same role while the other only does one role. One effectively moves between accents and eras while the other is well always Tom Cruise. Well, prime rib and round steak are both beef.
According to a statistic I read a few years ago, Tom Cruise has been paid more for his acting work in movies than any other actor or actress in history.
I think the best and worst thing you can say about Tom Cruise is that he’s dependable, rising occasionally to pretty good (collateral, magnolia). It means you are unlikely to see him in a stinker and he is always a safe pair of hands. Little wonder the studios love him.
Unfortunately it also means he is always Tom Cruise and though his films may be enjoyable I rarely find them living long in the memory.
George Clooney, Leonardo DiCaprio and Daniel Day-Lewis occupy roughly the same star-billing as Cruise but I find their work far more interesting (even if the studios wish they were more lucrative) and I never feel with them that I’m watching the actor rather than the character.
I’m only comparing them in terms of whether their movies double – or triple, or quadruple, or quintuple, or whatever – their budgets: Cruise is on a thirty-year hot streak as a bankable leading man, and Day-Lewis sometimes fails to break even.
Possibly they’ve got different priorities: Cruise does the accents-and-eras thing in projects where the money rolls in, and Day-Lewis swings for the fences with award bait – which is why he’s earned almost as many Golden Globes as, uh, Tom Cruise.
Someone really agreed with the OP Mr. Pepper.
Box Office: Tom Cruise Hasn’t Had A Real Flop In Nearly 30 Years
Somebody once pointed out that Cruise really became big with “Top Gun” in 1986. Rather than making “Top Gun 2” like a lot of people would do (salaries really jump with sequels), two of his next three pictures he was a supporting actor to Paul Newman and Dustin Hoffman. Both of whom went on to win Academy Awards. I don’t care how much of a grizzled veteran you are; people like to win awards. Did Cruise’s performance help them? Maybe, maybe not. But he also might have taken these roles in part to learn his craft.
I really don’t think that’s fair. Tom Cruise is clearly not in the same league as Daniel Day-Lewis, or Sean Penn, or Leonardo DiCaprio.
But while he does have a strong established “type” that people expect him to play, he does vary from it at times… most notably, recently, in his small part in Tropic Thunder. But also, for instance, in the first half of Edge of Tomorrow, where he reasonably convincingly played a total coward.
He’s certainly quite a bit more versatile than, say, Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider.
Good point.
A bit off topic but one of the most brilliant out of character performances I have seen was Rodney Dangerfield in Natural Born Killers. Too bad other directors didn’t give him more serious work.
Let’s be honest–the Golden Globes are notorious star-fuckers.
But while the Academy Awards have a record of dubious taste, they are given from people in the industry, not the press. And Tom Cruise has yet to win one. In fact, DDL has as many Oscars as Cruise has nominations.
I couldn’t tell you the numbers, especially since film budgets and salaries weren’t widely reported back then, but Shirley Temple was the box office champion from 1935-1938. And she headlined 14 films during those years. It’s often been reported that because her films were so successful, during those years when the country was still deep in The Depression, she’s credited for saving Hollywood.
Just bumping this because – well, it’s the end of 2016, and if I’d waited until now to start this thread, I could’ve more impressively titled it “Tom Cruise: Thirty Years, Dozens Of Starring Roles, Double Your Money Back.”
Because, see, TOP GUN was #1 at the box office a solid three decades before the latest JACK REACHER flick was #1 at the box office, and both of those – just like dozens of movies in between – promptly grossed more than double their budgets. And as far as I can tell, nobody else has ever pulled that off.
NEVER GO BACK is well above 2.5x – not spectacular, but consider everything else Hollywood put out this year that couldn’t double a budget: other sequels (the latest STAR TREK flick, the latest TMNT, the latest DIVERGENT, Ben Stiller as ZOOLANDER, Johnny Depp in an ALICE movie, Chris Hemsworth in HUNTSMAN); and remakes, like GHOSTBUSTERS and TARZAN and PETE’S DRAGON and THE MAGNIFICENT SEVEN; plus original stuff, like GODS OF EGYPT and THE NICE GUYS and DEEPWATER HORIZON and CAFE SOCIETY and THE BFG and who-knows-what-else.
Oh, and NINE LIVES. Heh. I still can’t believe that was a real movie.
And that’s just stuff that broke even! Hollywood threw tons of money at failures that couldn’t even manage that – Tom Hanks in A HOLOGRAM FOR THE KING, Chris Pine in THE FINEST HOURS, Tom Hiddleston in I SAW THE LIGHT, Matthew McConaughey in FREE STATE OF JONES, Tina Fey in WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, whoever the heck was in BEN HUR, and et cetera: PRIDE AND PREJUDICE AND ZOMBIES couldn’t break even, THE BROTHERS GRIMSBY couldn’t break even, RATCHET & CLANK couldn’t break even, KEEPING UP WITH THE JONESES couldn’t break even – it’s been a bloodbath.
Warren Beatty wanted a triumphant return in RULES DON’T APPLY; no such luck.
But Tom Cruise? Thirty years, dozens of starring roles, double your money back.
Cruise has got to me the most rock solid bankable star in Hollywood, and he must deserve credit for being able to pick movies that won’t flop. A lot of stars seem to make a couple bad choices and lose their careers.
People seemingly assume Cruise has a knack of picking the right roles, but isn’t he usually highly invested in the business side of his movies nowadays? I know he receives less salary and more % of profits, which indicates he is able to negotiate with the studios/money men. He is also listed as a producer for both MI and JR franchises, which are his golden tickets right now.
Also, he may not have the acting range of one of the all time greats - but he hung on to the side of a plane while it took off… and leaps from the tallest building in the world… when literally every other leading actor in the same position would just assume a stunt guy or CGI team would do the job.
That makes him pretty unique in my opinion.