Like Night and Day: Twilight Hits a Home Run, Tom Cruise Whiffs
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Two Wednesdays. Two movies. Two very different outcomes at the box office.
The last 10 days have confirmed two things in Hollywood: Twilight vampires remain highly bankable, and Tom Cruise does not.
The Twilight Saga: Eclipse has done boffo box office (more than $68 million on Wednesday alone), to no one’s surprise.
The abysmal numbers put up by the latest Cruise starrer (with Cameron Diaz) should likewise surprise no one. Tommy Boy has lost his mojo in recent years, and the trailers and TV commercials for Knight and Day didn’t give people any reason to feel intrigued by or excited about the action comedy. Even the title, a lame twist on a trite phrase, elicited indifference.
Knight and Day grossed a paltry $3.8 million in the U.S. and Canada on its opening night, June 23. Its $20-million Friday-to-Sunday gross was half what the critically panned Grown Ups took in and a full light-year behind Toy Story 3’s second-weekend take. Knight’s per-site average ($6,500) for the weekend was well below what a Hollywood studio might expect from a $117-million production with a hefty promotional budget.
Knight flopped, and most people would say Cruise must shoulder a big portion of the blame.
Fox marketing executive Tony Sella isn’t most people. “Blame me, don’t blame Tom,” he told a journalist this week. Maybe the posters hurt the movie. Maybe the trailers sucked. Maybe it was Xenu.
OK – I made up that last part.
Why would a studio suit go out of his way to fall on his own sword?
Perhaps he’s scared of Tommy Boy, who still has some juice in Hollywood despite the bad b.o. of recent starring movies that don’t have the words Mission and Impossible in the title.
Maybe the studio has Cruise attached to a future project, and Sella doesn’t want to alienate him before the project even starts. Maybe Cruise is in tight with people at the very tippy-top of Fox. Maybe Sella fears Tommy’s super-duper OT-7 $cientology powers.
Whatever the case, Sella’s mea culpa act was amusing to observe.
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Will be great if Tom Cruise will work with Jack Nicholson again. They were together in 1992 movie A few Good Men. I’ve heard that they plan to appear together in comedy “El Presidente”. Cheers!
Tom Cruise is really an amazing man. He doesn’t look his age. He is still very hot. I have seen his movie Knight and Day. He is my favorite Hollywood star.
I think and know that Tom Cruise is the greatest actor been a fan since he started out. He is a hot man. I’m a gay guy. Knowing he is my number 1 top actor…
The last Tom Cruise movie I saw was Mission Impossible. I rented it because all the good movies were taken. I was pretty sure I wouldn’t like it, and I was not disappointed. Wait a minute I WAS disappointed… Never mind. Anyway, I probably won’t ever go to the theater to see a TC movie but I will at least rent TC movies again IF:
1. TC will quit Scien*ology
2. TC will admit to being the biggest a$$hole in the world
3. Will apologize for his stupid remarks about mental problems/medicine and apologize for being the biggest a$$hole in the world.
Nikolai, you’ve nicely summed up my own problems with Tom Cruise.
After watching “Eyes Wide Shut” one night, I thought that has got to be the worst last movie for one of the greatest movie directors ever. Real shame.
Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman were not up to the roles at all.
I cannot believe that Stanley Kubrick picked these 2 to star in his last movie. One of his earlier movies, Dr Strangelove, is in my list of top 5 favorite movies of all time.
Tom Cruise’s first wife was hotter, Mimi Rogers, in her prime.
Mimi has that certain je ne se qua….or maybe it’s the boobs.
Oh Damn!!! I am sorry, I just had to use that link one more time!! LMAO…
Hers’s the link in case someone was curious…not that you will be Stimp…after all you are Canadian…
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_m_UF1Y63gvA/S8i_N17zjVI/AAAAAAAABiU/90gF_k4-l8Q/s1600/nichole-kidman-naked.jpg
WOWZA! THANKS!!
After getting a picture of Nicole Kidman in the nude, I must agree, anyone who can pass her up (Tom Cruise) has to be a total idiot.
I had heard he was good to work with, showed up on time, was always ready, etc. A true “professional” actor. If you haven’t seen him in Tropic Thunder, you can’t appreciate his range.
His off screen persona is about as nutty as they come.
In fairness, Cruise is A) very short and B) a bad actor.
As I am A) only 5 feet 7 inches and B) almost certainly a bad actor…I rather like him…well…at least on the occasions I look downwards and can see him…;-)
Oh eck…Dinners is ‘dwarfist’….oh well…it’s a new ‘ist’ for me on MMA…;-)
I saw the Cruise movie, oh dear, what a mistake, must add it was not my choice, I was just along for the ride as a courtesy, I sometimes talk friends to go and see what I prefer to see and it was payback time.
Yes the Cruise title sounds like a 70’s era tv detective show.
Absolutely hilarious and absolutely true! Great writing, and everything you said hit it right on the nose. Sorry Tommy BOY!
Thanks. The fading of Cruise’s stardom is nice to see. He has been a major-league knob for a long time.
I cannot abide Tom Cruise! He is an arrogant short asshole. Thanks for your time and consideration 🙂