By Scott Mendelson, Contributor
Tom Cruise may be among the biggest movie stars of the last thirty years, but his peak stardom occurred from the mid-80’s to mid-2000’s (Top Gun to War of the Worlds). That’s an incredibly long run, but it was also mostly during an age where opening weekend wasn’t quite as much of a dominating force in a film’s overall box office performance. Tom Cruise came of age during a time when a $15 million opening weekend was a big deal and $100 million domestic was an unqualified smash hit. I bring this up to explain that while Tom Cruise was and is among the biggest movie stars of the last few decades, his opening weekends as a whole don’t tend to measure up to what we would consider a massive debut. Aside from the $64 million Fri-Sun and $112 million Wed-Sun debut of Steven Spielberg‘s War of the Worlds in 2005 and three of the four Mission: Impossible films, not a single Tom Cruise film has opened above $36 million. As such, the $13 million (as reported by Exhibitor Relations) opening day of Oblivion may be somewhat run of the mill in today’s blockbuster context, but it’s actually somewhat of a milestone for Cruise. Aside from the $21 million Wednesday debut of War of the Worlds, the $13 million opening Friday for Oblivion possibly marks Tom Cruise‘s largest single day for a non-Mission: Impossible entry.
