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Jul. 5 2022, Published 2:55 p.m. ET
Tom Cruise became a whole lot richer after his latest film Top Gun: Maverick crossed the $1 billion mark at the box office, Radar has learned.
Industry sources have been whispering around town that the 60-year-old action star’s contract for the sequel to the 1986 film provided generously on the backend.
One insider spilled Tom’s deal with Paramount paid him $12.5 million upfront plus a 10 percent cut of the film’s “first-dollar gross" to reprise his role as Capt. Pete 'Maverick' Mitchell.
The film has pulled in $1.1 billion worldwide and is expected to pull in another $200 million before it leaves theaters.
Sources said Tom’s backend profits increase every time the film crosses a certain box office milestone.
Insiders estimate the studio will pull in around $600 million after the theaters took their cut. Normally, the studio and theater owners split profits 50/50. That would leave Tom with around $55 million from that cut.
However, we're told once you take into consideration the revenue from home video/streaming Tom's cut will rise to around $90-$100 million. The film's success comes after a rough couple of years for the devoted Scientologist.
For several years, Tom had struggled to bring in huge box office numbers for films outside of the Mission Impossible franchise.
In 2014, he scored a huge hit with Edge of Tomorrow with Emily Blunt but that came after several duds including Oblivion, Rock of Ages, Knight and Day, and Valkyrie. His films continued to underperform with 2017's The Mummy followed by American Made released the same year. He released the successful Mission: Impossible Fallout but had been searching for another blockbuster for some time.
Tom pushed hard to promote Top Gun: Maverick across the globe and the strategy paid off.
As RadarOnline.com previously reported, the actor's many critics — who call him out for his ties to Scientology — came for Lady Gaga after she agreed to sing on the soundtrack for Tom. The backlash did little to stop audiences from heading to the theater.
The success will also likely calm down Paramount who had been nervous about the forthcoming Mission Impossible sequel's budget. Studio execs were reportedly concerned after the budget swelled to over $300 million due to COVID restrictions.
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