It used to be say the words “Tom Cruise” and immediately the box office would print money. With the results of this past weekend’s movie tallies, things look a wee bit different for the decades-long superstar. His film Jack Reacher: Never Go Back was defeated by a Tyler Perry Madea movie that is the eighth in its series.
Perry’s Boo! A Madea Halloween scored $28.5 million, compared to Cruise’s attempt at starting a new franchise and its take of $22.8 million. The second Jack Reacher movie even had more going for it: It opened on 1,500 more screens than Madea!
Now, is this about Cruise’s star power waning or does this lack of success of the film translate to an audience’s reaction to a sequel that they never asked for? After all, 2016 has been filled with failed sequels that nobody asked for that Hollywood made anyway. I’m looking at you Alice Through the Looking Glass!
The first Jack Reacher made a relatively disappointing $80 million after a soft opening weekend of $15 million. Clearly it was not a film that screamed, “Let’s make another and not only that, but let’s ready plans for it to become a franchise.” Yet, with Cruise believing that his Mission Impossible movies could probably only go on for one or two more installments, the action star wants the series based on the Lee Child books to carry on. With 20 books from Child featuring Reacher as the protagonist, Cruise chose well.
Audiences do not seem to be agreeing with him.
Now, the good news is that Jack Reacher: Never Go Back made more on its opening weekend than the first film. But, really, that’s not great news — honestly. It banked only $7 million more. After several years have passed and a slew of people got to see the first film on home video, usually an audience will build up and produce a lot more than a $7 million bump in original-to-sequel opening day earnings.
The big number here that would be alarming if I were in Cruise’s camp is the 3,780 theaters it opened in that failed to produce larger numbers. One would think that a third Jack Reacher movie died this weekend, along with all those bad guys that Cruise’s alter ego knocked off as the ex-Army Ranger Major.
Sure, 2015’s Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation banked $195 million by the time it was done, with the previous film in that series taking in $209.4 million. That clearly indicates Mr. Cruise is Mr. Box Office. Yet, 2014’s Edge of Tomorrow just barely covered the coveted $100 million mark and 2013’s Oblivion didn’t even make it that high — stopping at $89 million when all was said and done. His two previous action flicks, Knight and Day and Valkyrie, scored $76.4 and $83 million, respectively… again failing to top that $100 million mark.
We would have to go back 11 years to 2005’s War of the Worlds (which also had the name Spielberg attached to it) for Cruise to have his last bonafide box office smash. The film, based on the classic tale, earned $234.3 million in its full run.
The thing is — Cruise is a movie star, through and through. Certain actors, when they reach a particular point in their career, find themselves drifting from the name above the title of the movie to those amongst the credits. Although Cruise has had some memorable cameos (Austin Powers and Tropic Thunder come to mind), it is sincerely doubtful that this guy would make the leap to supporting player or member of an ensemble. He did have great success in the latter with his turn in the film Magnolia. Cruise was fantastic and the film itself was supremely fantastic. But, that’s different… and it was back in the last millennia.
So, what does all this mean for Cruise? Looking at his upcoming slate of films… not much is going to change. He is attached to a number of sequels and a notable reboot that has as much name recognition as the film’s star himself. Top Gun 2, Mission Impossible 6 and The Mummy are all down the pike. Yet, he also has two “original” titles coming our way — American Made and Luna Park. The latter is a sci-fi actioner that reunites Cruise with his Oblivion director, Doug Liman. The former completes a Liman-Cruise trilogy of sorts in its tale of a pilot (Cruise) who winds up working for the CIA and doubling as a drug runner in the southern U.S. Both Liman movies are right up his alley.
The takeaway from this Jack Reacher falling short of expectations is maybe a simple one. Perhaps, this has nothing to do with Cruise’s fading star power. But, it has everything to do with people’s lack of interest in seeing the Reacher character do more than live on Child’s pages.
All of Cruise’s upcoming work has the promise of quality and box office potential. And above all else, it keeps the actor doing what he does best and loves most… playing the hero.
Will audiences respond? We suspect they will, but time will tell. Let’s check back in with this subject at the end of 2017 when all of the above will have arrived on screens and this crystal ball of Cruise will be much easier to forecast.