Wow… that’s gotta hurt. Tom Cruise, supposedly one of the biggest movie stars in the world, just bombed hard in the middle of the summer with Edge of Tomorrow, a $178 million sci-fi spectacular, just opened in distant third behind The Fault in Our Stars, a low budget teen romance. $29 million is, as far as summer blockbusters go, something to sneeze at, and to cover in goo. And although the international box office has been kinder to the critically acclaimed Doug Liman picture, it’s pretty clear that Americans just don’t care to see it. Like we said… ouch.
Related Article: The Best Movie Ever: Tom Cruise
As with any major motion picture release, whether it’s a huge success or a massive disappointment, Hollywood is going to look to Edge of Tomorrow for guidance. What should they do differently next time? What are audiences really interested in this year? What does this mean for the career of Tom Cruise and his co-stars? These are the questions they want answered, and CraveOnline‘s got them covered.
William Bibbiani is the editor of CraveOnline’s Film Channel and the host of The B-Movies Podcast and The Blue Movies Podcast. Follow him on Twitter at @WilliamBibbiani.
Edge of Tomorrow: 5 Things We've Learned
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Tom Cruise Isn't a Movie Star Anymore
Tom Cruise used to be one of the biggest movie stars in the world. Now he can't even open a great sci-fi action movie in the summer against a weepy teen romance. Edge of Tomorrow did well overseas, with over $111 million and counting, but in America it's now very clear that audiences have lost interest... unless he's making another Mission: Impossible, of course.
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But He's Still Good, Damn It
A bad box office turnout doesn't make Edge of Tomorrow a bad movie. It's actually a really good one, and Tom Cruise is great in it. People are going to discover Edge of Tomorrow down the road someday, on cable or home video, and they will probably be forced to admit that they shouldn't have let their preconceptions get in the way. Still, the problem may even have less to do with Tom Cruise and more to do with the fact that...
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People Want Romance, Even in the Summer
The Fault in Our Stars didn't just do well at the box office, it did ridiculously well. $48 million for a film with a $12 million budget, opening against a ton of blockbusters no less, is nothing less than a coup, particularly in the action-heavy summer season. Shailene Woodley clearly earned some box office clout after the hit teen fantasy Divergent, and it sure as hell doesn't hurt that...
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2014 is a Great Year for Female Heroes
Eva Green ruled 300: Rise of an Empire, Mireille Enos and Olivia Williams stole Sabotage right out from Arnold Schwarzenegger's nose, Shailene Woodley kicked ass in Divergent, Scarlett Johansson got her biggest Marvel movie part to date in Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Angelina Jolie turned heads in Maleficent and now Emily Blunt has emerged as a standout star in Edge of Tomorrow. The film didn't do great, but everyone who left the theater had to acknowledge that she dominated the screen in her first big role as an action hero. The tide is turning, fellas, and if this keeps up 2014 is going to go down as an important year for women in the action genre.
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2014 is a Bad Year for Original Action Movies
Edge of Tomorrow turned out to be a massive disappointment, and the summer's only other big budget original intellectual property, Wachowksi Starship's Jupiter Ascending, just got bumped to February 2015. This is the Summer of the Franchise, and it looks like only independent, low-budget genre films will have the potential to make a dent in it.
