Tom Cruise is a well-established box office star who is known for headlining some massively popular films, but it’s been 24 years since he achieved the biggest milestone of all. Cruise’s spot as one of Hollywood’s most bankable stars began in the late 1980s, and he proved his worth at the box office throughout the 90s as all but two of his movies made over $100 million at the box office. He then surpassed that milestone 11 times in the 2000s as the Mission: Impossible franchise expanded and he worked with Steven Spielberg on two massive hits.
To date, Tom Cruise’s movies have made over $12 billion at the worldwide box office, according to The Numbers, making him one of the highest-grossing actors of all time. Cruise’s trajectory at the box office is still climbing too. The record for the highest-grossing movie of Cruise’s career has been broken twice in the last six years thanks to Mission: Impossible – Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick – which is the current record holder. Despite all the success that Cruise still experiences at the box office, there’s one milestone he’s yet to do in nearly a quarter century.
Mission: Impossible II Was The Last Time Tom Cruise Had The Highest Grossing Movie Of The Year At The Box Office
Mission: Impossible 2 Was The Biggest Film Of 2000
Tom Cruise has been in box office hit after box office hit in the last two decades. However, he has yet to produce a movie during that stretch that finished the year as the highest-grossing movie overall. The last time this happened was back in 2000 with the release of Mission: Impossible II. The highly-anticipated sequel to Cruise’s 1996 franchise relaunch, which made an impressive $457 million worldwide, arrived with plenty of excitement. Directed by John Woo, Mission: Impossible II promised to up the action and thrill audiences from start to finish.
Mission: Impossible II was a massive box office hit throughout the year after its May release. It finished the year with a global box office total of $546 million. That performance was huge for the franchise and its star. Not only was it a new career best for Cruise at the time, but the nearly $100 million increase from the first film proved there was plenty of interest in seeing the franchise continue. The most important part, though, is that Mission: Impossible II was the highest-grossing movie of 2000 thanks to this performance.
Cruise’s Mission: Impossible sequel came out on top in a competitive year at the box office. His action franchise made nearly $90 million more than the next closest film, Gladiator. This put Cruise above Russell Crowe at the box office, as well as Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Jim Carrey, Ben Stiller, George Clooney, and Harrison Ford – who all had movies in the top 10. It also marked the second time in Cruise’s career that he finished the year as the star of the biggest movie at the box office.
Tom Cruise Has Only Starred In The Year’s Highest Grossing Movie One Other Time
Top Gun Was The First Time Tom Cruise Topped The Box Office
Top Gun is one of Tom Cruise’s most iconic movies and played a huge role in making him a significant box office draw. That’s largely because Tony Scott’s action film made $176 million worldwide in 1986. To help put that into perspective, Top Gun‘s box office gross adjusted for inflation is $514 million. This helped Tom Cruise be the star of the year’s highest grossing movie for the first time in his career.
Tom Cruise Movies To Finish #1 At The Worldwide Box Office
Movie
Box Office
Top Gun (1986)
$176 million
Mission: Impossible II (2000)
$546 million
Top Gun‘s spot at the top of the 1986 box office was only narrowly accomplished. Crocodile Dundee finished about $2 million shy of Top Gun‘s box office, so Paul Hogan’s comedy nearly took the first spot later in the year. Since Top Gun ultimately beat out Crocodile Dundee, it is the only other time in Cruise’s career where he was in the year’s biggest box office earner beyond Mission: Impossible II. However, he almost had the accomplishment a third time thanks to Top Gun‘s return.
Tom Cruise Just Missed Out On Having The Highest Grossing Movie Of 2022 With Top Gun: Maverick
Top Gun: Maverick Would Have Been 2022’s Biggest Box Office Hit Most Years
Top Gun: Maverick was a movie that Cruise and audiences waited decades for, and the response propelled it to record-breaking box office heights. The sequel made nearly $1.5 billion at the worldwide box office throughout 2022. Although the film was delayed multiple times, Paramount and Cruise smartly held out for a full theatrical release, and they were rewarded for it. The only reason Top Gun: Maverick didn’t finish the year as the biggest box office hit is because Avatar: The Way of Water came out – and it made almost another billion dollars more.
The box office battle between Avatar: The Way of Water and Top Gun: Maverick was not always expected. The Avatar sequel held multiple release dates over the years, as did Top Gun‘s sequel, thanks to various delays. There easily could have been a world where Avatar: The Way of Water came out a different year than Top Gun: Maverick, which would have allowed Cruise to be at the top of the box office once again.
Finishing in the second spot at the global box office for 2022 is still an impressive accomplishment for Cruise and Top Gun: Maverick. It joins Rain Man as the only film of his to finish second at the worldwide box office for any given year. 1996 was a great year for Cruise as he had two films in the top five, with Mission: Impossible finishing third and Jerry Maguire finishing fourth. The Firm (1993) and War of the Worlds (2005) also finished as the fourth biggest movies of their respective years.
Tom Cruise has had 16 movies finish in the top 10 at the global box office in the year of its release
Cruise has had several other films finish in the top 10 at the global box office throughout his career. A Few Good Men (1992) and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) are the only other films to finish in the top five. The Last Samurai finished sixth in 2003, too. The eighth spot is most frequent for Cruise as Mission: Impossible III, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and Mission: Impossible – Fallout finished there in 2006, 2015, and 2018. Minority Report and Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning both finished tenth in 2002 and 2023.
Tom Cruise’s Upcoming Movies Aren’t Likely To Give Him The Top Spot At The Box Office
But He’ll Still Have Some Big Hits Ahead
Tom Cruise has still been chasing the box office high of Mission: Impossible II for the last 24 years, and the bad news for him is that his streak is sure to continue for the next several years. Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning hopes to rebound nicely after Dead Reckoning‘s box office underperformed. Even if it does do franchise-best numbers, it’s unlikely to finish as the highest-grossing movie of 2025, given how many highly anticipated films are slated for the year.
Top Gun 3 is the most likely of Cruise’s upcoming projects to potentially top the global box office
It’s also not expected that any other upcoming Tom Cruise movies will finish at the top of the box office. His films with Christopher McQuarrie, Doug Liman, and Alejandro G. Iñárritu should do well for what they are but won’t contend with the biggest films of the year. Top Gun 3 is the most likely of Cruise’s upcoming projects to potentially top the global box office. However, the sequel does not have a release date and is still years away at best, leaving Tom Cruise waiting for a chance to be the king of the box office once again.
