Tom Cruise has played many memorable roles in his long career in Hollywood. But he’s probably best remembered as senior secret agent Ethan Hunt and for a good reason. Running for more than two decades, his ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies are also his most successful ones so far when it comes to box office figures.
Series Earnings
According to estimates, the ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise has made around $3.5 billion over the course of 23 years and six films, making it one of the top 20 highest-grossing movie series of all time.
The action series’ success made the almost 57-year-old a certified bankable actor and he’s definitely well-compensated for it. And considering the fact that Cruise reportedly does his own stunts for the action-packed movies, he most likely deserves the millions he earns from each one of them, too.
The movie series began in 1996 with the premiere of the original ‘Mission: Impossible’ film. However, not many people know that it actually originated from a Bruce Geller television series of the same name which aired for seven seasons on CBS from 1966 to 1973.
Tom’s Share
For his main starring role in the films, Cruise reportedly receives a flat rate talent fee as well as a share of the box office earnings. He ended up making an impressive $70 million for the first film alone. The fact that the movie’s budget is only said to be $80 million, makes the feat even crazier. But that’s only the beginning…
After managing to secure a deal that entitled him to a whopping 30% share of these films’ earnings, Cruise earned $75 million each from the follow-ups ‘Mission: Impossible 2‘ and ‘Mission: Impossible III’.
Totaling this with the rest of his earnings from the series, Cruise made around $285 million ($389 million accounting for inflation), as Ethan Hunt. And that’s without considering his back-end earnings from the last three installments.
Not surprisingly, Cruise has now become one of the richest actors in Hollywood. His net worth is estimated to be somewhere around $570 million. In fact, Wealthy Gorilla ranks the American actor second in their list of the richest actors in the world. The top spot went to Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan who reportedly has a net worth of $600 million.
The Franchise’s Future
And it seems that the series is still going strong. Its sixth and most recent installation, which premiered in 2018, was both a financial and critical success. It’s even said to have the series’ biggest opening earning: $61 million on its first weekend in theaters alone.
The seventh and eighth movies in the franchise were announced in January of this year and are slated to be released in 2021 and 2022 respectively. This would mean that the film’s lead star would be around 60 years old once both of the movies hit the theaters.
