Tom Cruise prepares his most impossible mission: save the cinema

He just said it: Tom Cruise He wants to continue making “Mission Impossible” movies until he is 80 years old. With just turned 61, whoever may be the last movie star not only has the responsibility of carrying a franchise on his shoulders. His task is more complicated, some would say impossible: save the cinema.

As in fiction, this too is a race against time. With half a year gone by, Hollywood is experiencing one of its worst crises: scriptwriters on strike, actors about to take the same measure of force and blockbusters that are no longer blockbusters: only one film released in 2023 has exceeded one billion dollars in collection. That’s where Tom Cruise comes in, who since “Rebels” (1983) has built his reputation as someone who gives everything for a movie and who expects the same commitment from his colleagues.

With more than thirty films that have exceeded 100 million dollars in revenue, Cruise is in the eyes of Hollywood an almost safe bet at the box office. Even with skates like “The Mummy” (2017), the actor was synonymous with success before the pandemic. But after this, when the theaters reopened, his super powers have been more necessary. In an era with few massive successes, the 1,495 million dollars of “Top Gun: Maverick” (2022) were the oxygen that Hollywood needed to survive. A large figure that does not lose merit before the 2,300 million of “Avatar: the path of water”, which premiered at the end of the same year and that a large part of its collection arrived in 2023.

This year only “Super Mario Bros. The Movie” has surpassed 1 billion in revenue, while “Fast and Furious” is about to end its run in theaters without having surpassed its predecessor; Gone are the times where Vin Diesel got billions. And let’s not talk about “The Flash” and the fifth of “Indiana Jones”, a couple of flops.

A lawyer for the most spectacular cinema, Cruise has made public his crusade to save theaters. “When this whole process (the film) began four years ago, we were entering a period where it seemed that this event (the cinema) was heading towards extinction. It was a very real possibility that this medium that we love so much was on its way out,” “Mission: Impossible” director Christopher McQuarrie said at a public event. “One person said ‘no, we’re going to continue,’” he added, referring to Cruise, who is his boss.

The new “Mission Impossible” arrives in a key month for the cinema, where the studios launch their biggest bets. So it will be with “Oppenheimer” by Christopher Nolan and that enigma called “Barbie” by Greta Gerwig; both in theaters from July 20. Tom Cruise, in a gesture of goodwill, posed for photos with McQuarry, both holding their tickets to see the competing films. Go to the movies, he tells the world.

The new “Mission Impossible” arrives in a key month for the cinema, where the studios launch their biggest bets. So it will be with “Oppenheimer” by Christopher Nolan and that enigma called “Barbie” by Greta Gerwig; both in theaters from July 20.

Cruise is generous, but also competitive. Information recently leaked that he was upset about not having enough IMAX theaters in the United States for “Mission Impossible”, because they are taken over precisely by “Oppenheimer”. It does not seem like something that the actor would not do, especially after revealing the violence with which he reacted when the film crew did not respect the anti-Covid-19 protocols. It is the other side of the demand, the one that is not promoted in press conferences and red carpets.

“I grew up watching movies on the big screen. This is how I do them and I like that experience; it is immersive. And having that as a community and an industry is important. I still go to the movies,” Cruise said in an interview with the Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald.

Hollywood is in the middle of a debate about why people don’t go to the movies like before. One argument is that the public saves for those tapes that deserve to be seen on the silver screen, those that are events rather than simple stories. “Mission Impossible: Deadly Sentence”, which has delighted critics who have already seen it, promises to be one of these stories, due to the explosions, chases and stunts where Cruise runs, jumps and flies without a stunt double. All for the movies.