14 DAY TRIAL // The reign of Tom Cruise at the box office, the days when he could take any film and turn it into gold for the movie studio and, most importantly, himself, have come to an end. Paramount Pictures has lost confidence in the actor – to such an extent that it has cut his pay for his upcoming film, the fourth installment of the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, NY Mag’s Vulture reports.
Paramount had reportedly a lot of problems with getting “Knight and Day” off the ground as well. The film, also starring Cameron Diaz, barely made over $70 million domestically at the box office, which is close to being a disaster given that it’s being fronted by two A-listers. Before release, rumor had it that initial reaction to the film was so bad that the movie studio was actually considering doing the promo campaign around Cruise; that is to say, leaving him out of it. Judging by the box office figures, it would seem that the movie studio had good reason to worry.
“Insiders tell Vulture that Paramount has lost so much confidence in Tom Cruise that it’s radically restructured his financial compensation and secured much – some say as much as half – of Mission: Impossible 4’s expected $135 million production budget from David Ellison, scion of Oracle Corporation billionaire, Larry Ellison. […] According to members of the Cruise camp, Cruise is receiving […] a substantially reduced upfront payment relative to his previous outings with the M:I films. He will ‘get a nice back-end after cash break-even,’ according to one insider familiar with the situation,” Vulture writes.
This means that Cruise has accepted to receive a reduced pay upfront, in the hope that the film will turn out to be successful and he’ll get more after the release. The initial report from Vulture said that things were so bad, Cruise had actually agreed to be paid “scale” (translation for “Screen Actors Guild minimum payment”). As it turns out, things are not that bad – but they’re bad nonetheless, because a cut in the pay of one of the biggest cinema stars means that the star (Cruise, in this case) is starting to lose his shine. Though it comes as no consolation to Tom or his fans, he’s not the only one to lose his grip on audiences.
“In short, the era of big stars saying, ‘Trust me, I’m famous! I got this!’ seems mostly over: Despite his global recognition, Cruise’s latest film, Knight and Day, has managed to gross only about $74 million domestically and hasn’t yet cracked $190 million worldwide. As the box-office prowess of ‘first-dollar gross’ megastars like Cruise wanes, they now must settle for being paid only after their products prove profitable. (Jim Carrey agreed to a similar deal, accepting nothing up front, to star in Yes Man, but still made off with an estimated $30 million-plus as a result.),” Vulture further says.
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