Tom Cruise Takes Paycut for M:I 4 - A Nation Mourns
Fri, August 6, 2010 
I thought people were done this "Tom Cruise is over!" crap? Yes, Knight & Day under-performed on our shores. Those who are continuously harping on that need to get their heads outta their asses and aim their guns at Fox's shitty marketing on the spy action/comedy and less on Cruise. Look at its overseas numbers – they’re good as everyone expected them to be. Oy vey.
Adding diesel to that never-ending fire is a new report from Vulture.
According to their spies, Paramount (already counting their eggs) is hedging their bets on Cruise's bankability for Mission: Impossible 4. As a means for the studio to tighten their belts, Cruise will receive substantially fewer bucks upfront (the original reporting said he’s being paid scale versus his reps who say it’s not that low) with "a nice back-end after cash break-even."
What does this mean for you and me? Dick. The best us regular schmoes will get is another kick-ass Impossible installment (produced by J.J. Abrams and directed by Brad Bird for a December 16, 2011 release) and Cruise will still be a rich-guy laughing it up eating his caviar out of his wife's ass while sailing in one of his dozen or so yachts.
Reader Comments (1)
I think that Cruise's age has more to do with his lowered starpower than anything else. Studios make most of their money off of the domestic gross so it is still a disappointment. It's not a bomb but nobody can deny that it is a disappointment. The days of Cruise's movies almost always hitting 100mil are over and his bad choice (AKA appealing to the masses) of movie projects have hurt him more than anything else. Choosing Knight and Day over Salt was a bad move IMHO.
Now hear me out. I think that Salt is a bad movie and it's not going to go way over 100mil or anything but it's primise, although not groundbreaking, was more interesting than Knight and Day's and I think that it would have made more than Knight and Day where it counts most; In the USA. The choice of leading lady in Knight and Day was also a huge mistake. Who gives a f**k about Diaz anymore? She is old annoying hat. Tom should have hired an actress with buzz on her. There were so many mistakes made that is isn't even funny. And yes, the marketing was bad but the primise was so unappealing that I don't think that the flick ever when have been a huge hit.