Tom Cruise Has Starred in a Stunning 34 Domestic $100 Million Grossing Films

That's almost 80% of his releases, unequalled in his time.

Tom Cruise in “Top Gun: Maverick” (Paramount)

“Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning” (Paramount) is likely the final installment in the nearly 30 year-long history of the franchise. Whether it is profitable (a real uncertainty with its over half a billion dollar production and marketing expense; it will need to do better than “Dead Reckoning - Part One” two years ago by some margin), it is certain to become the 35th film starring Tom Cruise to effectively gross over $100 million in the domestic (U.S./Canada market).

Analysis of its performance (it is expected to gross up to $75 million Friday-Sunday domestic, second by some distance to “Lilo & Stitch” (Disney) can wait until results are in. A review of his box office record, adjusted to reflect current ticket prices, reveals an astounding more than four-decade consistent record of success. That explains why in recent years Paramount and its production partners have committed to the financial risk of his last five films.

In an professional acting career that apparently has been 100% theatrical-movie based, Cruise has appeared in lead or significant supporting roles 43 films before “Final.” Of those, 34 have grossed over $100 million domestic adjusted. That’s 79% reaching that level when adjusted.

Among his contemporaries, only Harrison Ford (because of his roles of Han Solo and Indiana Jones leading the way) has starred in movies with a higher total gross. But for reliability across the board, Cruise can’t be equalled. His domestic adjusted total is close to $8 billion, foreign somewhere in the same range.

Adjusting the domestic totals to a current estimate of $11.31/ticket average, below are by gross range groups his films in order of gross. In addition, each film will be listed by its position among all its year’s releases:

$750-800 million

1. Top Gun: Maverick (2022/1)

$500-550 million

2. Top Gun (1986/1)

$450-500 million

3. War of the Worlds (2005/4)

4. Mission: Impossible (1996/3)

$400-450 million

5. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000/3)

6. The Firm (1993/4)

$350-400 million

7. Rain Man (1988/1)

8. A Few Good Men (1992/5)

$275-300 million

9. Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (2011/7)

10. Interview with a Vampire (1994/11)

11. Jerry Maguire (1996/4)

$250-275 million

12. Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018/8)

13. Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation (2015/11)

14. Minority Report (2002/17)

$225-250 million

15. Risky Business (1983/10)

16. Mission: Impossible III (2006/14)

$200-225 million

17. Days of Thunder (1990/13)

18. Cocktail (1988/9)

19. The Last Samurai (2003/20)

$175-200 million

20. Vanilla Sky (2001/20)

21. Born on the Fourth of July (1989/17)

22. Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 (2023/13)

23. Collatoral (2004/23)

24. Tropic Thunder (2008/23)

$150-175 million

25. The Color of Money (1986/12)

26. Far and Away (1992/21)

$125-150 million

27. Taps (1981/16)

28. Valkyrie (2008/35)

29. Edge of Tomorrow (2014/33)

$100-125 million

30. Eyes Wide Shut (1999/42)

31. Oblivion (2013/41

32. Knight & Day (2010/45

33. Jack Reacher (2012/38

34. The Mummy (2017/40)

The Rest (in order of gross)

Jack Reacher: Never Go Back, The Outsiders, American Made, All the Right Moves, Magnolia, Legend, Rock of Ages, Lions for Lambs, Losin’ It

Some quick takeaways:

• About 3.5 billion out of the $8 billion U.S./Canada total has been from either “Top Gun” or “Mission” films.

• “Top Gun,” “Rain Man,” and “Top Gun: Maverick” were #1 for their years, a rare three film achievement for any actor (Harrison Ford has four, all “Star Wars” entries)

• The emphasis of his two major franchises (including “Final Reckoning” his four most recent films) clearly is a result of relative flatness among other recent efforts. Since 2005, no other of his films in a lead role (and remember his films tend to be high budget) have grossed over $150 million.

• That includes “Jack Reacher,” a two-film franchise meant to continue but stopped after two adequate but not sensation efforts.

• In his first dozen years, he teamed up with some top draws (Dustin Hoffman, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman, Brad Pitt), but rarely except for a handful of ensemble films (usually lower grossing) since. He has had a lot of strong female costars, but the bulk of his career has not seen actresses as co-leads.

• “Dead Reckoning Part 1” was the lowest grossing of the “Mission” films, which is why the new expensive film is such a risk. By any account, Tom Cruise remains one of the few big stars around. But its reaction is likely to determine how many multi-hundred million productions, if any, he has left.