Tom Cruise has positioned himself as one of the greatest action stars of the last two decades thanks to franchise roles like playing Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible. As if we didn’t already know that Cruise has the ability to draw a crowd, U.S. Paramount+ subscribers have been making it abundantly clear, as four of the star’s movies are currently dominating the streamer’s Top 10 – even though most of them have been on the platform for more than a year.
Top of the pile is 2022’s highest grossing movie, Top Gun: Maverick, which is currently holding third position on the chart. The sequel to Cruise’s 1986 blockbuster suffered numerous delays during the Covid pandemic, and all the signs suggested that when it arrived the reaction would be quite muted in the same way as many other pandemic movies. Instead, Cruise’s return to the skies took off at Mach 10 and just kept going. Subsequently, the film has been a constant presence on Paramount+ since its debut, and it looks like that has played a part in pushing a third Top Gun movie into development.
However, one of Cruise’s less admired action franchises is also charting high – Jack Reacher and its sequel, Jack Reacher: Never Go Back. While Prime Video has seen huge success from their series based on the books of Lee Child, Cruise’s two outings as the mercenary were not as highly praised thanks to the actor being only half the man he needed to be in order to accurately fill the muscles of the titular character. Despite that, this is not the first time the films have scored big wins on streaming, as both movies have also had successful runs on other platforms in the last year.
Even Tom Cruise’s Rare Comedy Appearance is a Hit Again
While Cruise’s love of insane stunts and explosive action movies have become his bread and butter, many forget some of his non-action roles, which are usually even more outrageous than any of his beyond-belief Mission: Impossible scenes. One example is the brilliant and often controversial Tropic Thunder, in which the actor donned prosthetics to transform into the foul-mouthed Les Grossman.
Tropic Thunder is the fourth movie featuring Cruise currently in the Top 10, jumping into the chart at #9. His appearance in the movie became one of many highlights in the crazy Ben Stiller film, which, as well as Stiller and Cruise, also features Jack Black and Robert Downey Jr. The film is hailed as one of the best comedy movies of the 2000s, even if Downey Jr’s character’s Blackface controversy still rages on to this day. While Cruise is a secondary player in the movie behind its three leads, his over-the-credits dance scene alone is worth the admission fee.
Related
6 Best Tom Cruise Movies for Sci-Fi Fans
From Vanilla Sky to Mission: Impossible 7, Tom Cruise dove headfirst into some of the most imaginative sci-fi movies, some better than others.
While Cruise has his haters, it is hard to deny that the man knows how to command an audience, no matter what role he takes on. Having said that, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning – another movie delayed several times – proved to be a disappointment last year, and now the eighth installment in the franchise has a lot of expectation resting on its shoulders to prove that there is still life in Ethan Hunt’s death-defying adventures.
-
Tom Cruise returns as Pete “Maverick” Mitchell, and keeps pushing the envelope as a seasoned aviator for the Navy in this sequel to the original Top Gun film.
- Release Date
- May 27, 2022
- Director
- Joseph Kosinski
- Runtime
- 2hr 26min
-
- Release Date
- December 21, 2012
- Runtime
- 2h 10m
