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TOM COUISe
Tom Cruise's Troubles: As Clear as 'Knight and Day'
Tom Cruise's dream of a glorious career comeback turned into a Pixar-driven nightmare this weekend when 'Toy Story 3' and even Adam Sandler's 'Grown Ups' (!) walloped Tom's new film, 'Knight and Day,' at the box office, leaving the once golden superstar to ask himself: what next?
"This was the worst opening for a Cruise action movie in 20 years," one industry insider tells me. "I just don't see how even the eerily eternally optimistic Tom can see this as anything but very bad news, maybe even the end of Tom's long career."
'Knight and Day,' co-starring Cameron Diaz, limped in at $20.5 million for the weekend, far behind 'Toy Story's' $59 million haul and 'Grown Ups' $41 million.
Cruise, who has always been a much bigger star than box office draw, has had a bunch a recent box office flops, including 'Lion For Lambs' and 'Valkyrie,' yet this latest film was meant to be his big comeback, marketed as a sort of 'Mission: Impossible 4.' So what went wrong?
"People have turned on the once beloved actor and don't want to spend two hours with him anymore," one producer tells me. "I have never in my years in the business seen such venom for an actor. Tom has become the poster child of everything creepy. After this weekend he must be worried that his career is over."
It was over five years ago that Tom adopted the role of unofficial spokesman for the Church of Scientology. Then he jumped on Oprah's couch, chided Brooke Shields for taking medicine for postpartum depression and got snappish with 'Today' host Matt Lauer. Let's face it, he has never been able to recover from all this.
Look no further than Cruise's box office numbers over the years to see my point. While the grosses for 'Knight & Day' aren't quite atrocious and certainly not Cruise's worst, they're paltry compared to his high points, and certainly nothing indicative of a major comeback:
2010 -- 'Knight & Day': $20.5 million opening weekend
2008 -- 'Valkyrie': $21 million opening / $83 million total
2007 -- 'Lions for Lambs': $6.7 million opening / $15 million total
2006 -- 'Mission: Impossible III': $47.7 million opening / $134 million total
2005 -- 'War of the Worlds': $64.8 million opening / $234.2 million total
2002 -- 'Minority Report': $35.6 million opening / $132 million total
2000 -- 'Mission: Impossible II': $57.8 million opening / $215.4 million total
1996 -- 'Mission: Impossible': $45.4 million opening / $180.9 million total
1994 -- 'Interview With the Vampire': $36.3 million opening / $105.2 million total
While Tom Cruise's road to redemption was never guaranteed in terms of box office gold, the savaging 'Knight & Day' is receiving from critics comes as a shock -- the film stands at 54 percent on RottenTomatoes. A 20th Century Fox exec told The Daily Beast, "I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this."
"The man who used to be the biggest movie star in the world is reduced to putting on a fat suit, fake chest hair, a bald cap and slapping J.Lo's butt at the MTV Movie Awards," a friend of the actor said, "Who would have thought that cute kid that we all fell in love with in 'Top Gun' might see his last role playing the fat, bald, vulgar movie producer Les Grossman?"
Tom Cruise's Troubles: As Clear as 'Knight and Day'
Tom Cruise's dream of a glorious career comeback turned into a Pixar-driven nightmare this weekend when 'Toy Story 3' and even Adam Sandler's 'Grown Ups' (!) walloped Tom's new film, 'Knight and Day,' at the box office, leaving the once golden superstar to ask himself: what next?
"This was the worst opening for a Cruise action movie in 20 years," one industry insider tells me. "I just don't see how even the eerily eternally optimistic Tom can see this as anything but very bad news, maybe even the end of Tom's long career."
'Knight and Day,' co-starring Cameron Diaz, limped in at $20.5 million for the weekend, far behind 'Toy Story's' $59 million haul and 'Grown Ups' $41 million.
Cruise, who has always been a much bigger star than box office draw, has had a bunch a recent box office flops, including 'Lion For Lambs' and 'Valkyrie,' yet this latest film was meant to be his big comeback, marketed as a sort of 'Mission: Impossible 4.' So what went wrong?
"People have turned on the once beloved actor and don't want to spend two hours with him anymore," one producer tells me. "I have never in my years in the business seen such venom for an actor. Tom has become the poster child of everything creepy. After this weekend he must be worried that his career is over."
It was over five years ago that Tom adopted the role of unofficial spokesman for the Church of Scientology. Then he jumped on Oprah's couch, chided Brooke Shields for taking medicine for postpartum depression and got snappish with 'Today' host Matt Lauer. Let's face it, he has never been able to recover from all this.
Look no further than Cruise's box office numbers over the years to see my point. While the grosses for 'Knight & Day' aren't quite atrocious and certainly not Cruise's worst, they're paltry compared to his high points, and certainly nothing indicative of a major comeback:
2010 -- 'Knight & Day': $20.5 million opening weekend
2008 -- 'Valkyrie': $21 million opening / $83 million total
2007 -- 'Lions for Lambs': $6.7 million opening / $15 million total
2006 -- 'Mission: Impossible III': $47.7 million opening / $134 million total
2005 -- 'War of the Worlds': $64.8 million opening / $234.2 million total
2002 -- 'Minority Report': $35.6 million opening / $132 million total
2000 -- 'Mission: Impossible II': $57.8 million opening / $215.4 million total
1996 -- 'Mission: Impossible': $45.4 million opening / $180.9 million total
1994 -- 'Interview With the Vampire': $36.3 million opening / $105.2 million total
While Tom Cruise's road to redemption was never guaranteed in terms of box office gold, the savaging 'Knight & Day' is receiving from critics comes as a shock -- the film stands at 54 percent on RottenTomatoes. A 20th Century Fox exec told The Daily Beast, "I don't know if I've ever seen anything like this."
"The man who used to be the biggest movie star in the world is reduced to putting on a fat suit, fake chest hair, a bald cap and slapping J.Lo's butt at the MTV Movie Awards," a friend of the actor said, "Who would have thought that cute kid that we all fell in love with in 'Top Gun' might see his last role playing the fat, bald, vulgar movie producer Les Grossman?"