Tom Cruise arrived at CinemaCon during a somber moment. He earned big applause as he took the stage, and he started off by paying tribute to the late Val Kilmer, his co-star in Top Gun who died Tuesday.
“I’d like to honor a dear friend of mine Val Kilmer for a moment,” Cruise said to applause. “I can’t tell you how much I admired his work,” he continued, adding that he cherished Kilmer as a human being and was grateful that he made a cameo in Top Gun: Maverick.
Cruise then asked the audience to take a moment of silence for Kilmer. “If we just all take a moment to remember the wonderful time we had with him — let’s just take a moment,” the star said. Cruise closed with, “I wish you well on your next journey.”
One of the world’s few remaining movie stars, Cruise flew into Las Vegas to participate in Paramount’s presentation before thousands of global owners gathered on The Strip this week. Specifically, he helped to introduce footage/trailer for Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning and to personally deliver director and longtime partner Christopher McQuarrie‘s with one of CinemaCon’s top honors.
Cruise has long been an ardent advocate of the theatrical experience, and often participates in CinemaCon — even if from afar because of shooting commitments or post-production schedules. An exception was in 2018, when he turned up to receive the Mission: Impossible — Fallout and to receive the Will Rogers Motion Picture Pioneer of the Year award.
Cruise and McQuarrie have plenty riding on the film, which hits theaters over Memorial Day weekend. It was originally intended to be the second part of Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, but those plans were stymied when Dead Reckoning underperformed at the box office in summer 2024, topping out at $571 million globally.
Many pundits believe the movie was, at least in part, a victim of the Barbenheimer effect, i.e., Greta Gerwig‘s Barbie and Christopher Nolan‘s Oppenheimer, which opened opposite each several weekends after Mission: Impossible hit theaters. Theaters were still recovering from the pandemic and Cruise himself urged people to see both movies. He likely never imagined it could come at the expense of his own.
After it’s soft opening, Cruise hit the brakes. He and McQuarrie delayed the second movie — which was originally titled Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Two — in order to retool the storyline and y a year and retooled the storyline.
“Every choice has led to this,” Cruise captioned the Instagram post that revealed the movie’s official name and first poster in December 2024.
Cruise reprises his role as Ethan Hunt in the eighth film, which also star Henry Czerny, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Pom Klementieff and Vanessa Kirby. The film also features Hannah Waddingham, Nick Offerman, Katy O’Brian and Tramell Tillman.
Cruise and McQuarrie are producing the film for Paramount and David Ellison’s Skydance Entertainment, which is awaiting federal approval to complete his acquisition of Paramount.
While Cruise has been open about wanting to keep making Mission: Impossible movies into his 80s, The Hollywood Reporter revealed earlier this month that Paramount wanted to promote the eighth film as the “final” entry in the franchise, to boost audience interest (the budget. There’s also speculation that the pic could go the the Cannes Film Festival in early May.
More to come.
