Tom Cruise is out of “The Man from UNCLE,” which is good news since he was entirely miscast as Napoleon Solo. But more pressing news for Cruise is that his latest, “Oblivion,” shows a trend for the man who rules “Mission Impossible.’
“Oblivion” will not make $100 million in the United States, even though it had a strong start when it opened. Right now “Oblivion” is at $86.5 million. This past week it fell into a decline from which it will not recover. The action thriller from Joseph Kosinski will tail off before $90 mil is reached.
Cruise is pretty much confined now to Mission Impossible as safety franchise. His non branded movies– “Reacher,” “Valkyrie,” “Knight and Day” — have averaged around $75-$80 million. That’s a lot of money for some movies. But let’s not forget– Cruise films cost a fortune starting with his salary and perks.
Where Cruise is a hit still is abroad. “Oblivion” had made all its real money in South Korea, Russia, Australia and elsewhere. This is why Cruise’s movies open first around the world before they come here. And why he now limits his press in the U.S. after doing marathon photo calls at foreign locales.
Meantime, Paramount made a big deal of announcing that Cruise would be back for “Mission Impossible 5.” But so far there’s no word on Jeremy Renner, who energized ‘MI4″ and was supposed to be the heir apparent in that series.
