According to recent reports, Tom Cruise - Mission Impossible star, Scientology nut, and former Hollywood heartthrob – has had his 14-year-old tie with Paramount pictures cut, the company choosing not to renew his contract due to his “public antics and incessant stumping for personal causes…that have become intolerable and have been a drag on ticket sales”. And who said that doing dumb sh*t won’t get you in trouble?
Apparently, Sumner Redstone, Viacom’s chairman (Viacom owns Paramount Pictures) feels that Tom is no longer a hot ticket item, now the constant butt of an enormous amount of jokes, most of which stem from his belief in Scientology and his relationship with Katie Holmes. Mr. Redstone was quoted as saying “[Tom's] recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount…we don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot.” Harsh words toward a man who’s movies have generated US$1.1bn in the US alone…harsh words, but perhaps words that are rooted in truth.
Some of Tom’s more notable off screen antics have been on Oprah when he “exuberantly on her couch as he effused about his love for fiancée Katie Holmes” (crazy? Little bit? He literally started jumping on her couch!) and on NBC’s Today show when he “launched a sermon about the evils of antidepressants, taking a swipe at actress Brooke Shields who wrote about her use of the medicine to help cope with postpartum depression in her book Down Came the Rain.” Hmmm…acting crazy? Taking swipes at other stars? Not typical of the superstar, and not good for ticket sales. According to Viacom, Tom’s crazyness cost M:i:III US$150mm in ticket sales…Ouch.
With movie studios becoming less and less patient with their stars, if someone is not performing, no matter who you are, you will get booted. In the end, what the company has to weigh the option of having a star like Tom Cruise headline a movie, generating instantaneous demand but potentially hurting that demand through his off screen antics, versus having no Tom Cruise at all. In my opinion, this was a good business decision for Paramount pictures because having released movies like Brokeback Mountain and Hustle and Flow recently, they are clearly not hurting for as far as quality pics are concerned, and with Mr. Cruise’s career on a downturn, why not get out while you are ahead instead of pay this guy a boatload of money and not see too much in return?
As for Tom, he is still a good actor and will continue to generate revenue in whatever movie he does. Like I said when I blogged about Mel Gibson, just because he might do stupid stuff off screen doesn’t mean I am going to stop watching his movies. Tom’s publicist (how reliable is this guy, I don’t know…) said that Tom’s private production company, Cruise/Wagner, has been financed by two very large hedge funds and now they are self financed and can make their own business decisions…hmm…I would have to say the decisions that he has made recently don’t exactly make him Einstein…we’ll see if that takes off or not…
In the meantime, I’m going to go think of what religion I can start…maybe I’ll be able to get Colin Farrell on board…he does enough stupid sh*t…any ideas?
Cheers,
Taps
Bye-bye Paramount…
