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Tom Cruise was the number one box office draw in the world for the body of 20 years. Starting with his career making role as “Maverick” Pete Michell in the 1985 blockbuster, Top Gun, Cruise’s appeal was such that he elevated subject matter as disinteresting as bartending, stock car racing and military justice into bona fide hits. Need a 19th century alcoholic Samurai? Cruise could pull it off. Want to turn a story of a disfigured schizophrenic into a $100 million movie? Cruise was the man. Have a story about a strange night that winds up at an orgy that you want to sell to the masses? Well, even Tom Cruise had his limits, but the point remains. Tom Cruise was the biggest star in the world for as long as any performer ever in the history of the industry. Then, he jumped on Oprah’s couch and…well, you know the rest.

There is no way to overstate the negative impact Tom Cruise’s personal eccentricities had upon the box office performances of his films. Mission: Impossible III is one of the best action movies of our generation, yet its global take is roughly $150 million less than the vastly inferior Mission: Impossible 2. Lions for Lambs is the worst performer of Cruise’s career as a lead actor (unless we include the obscure 1983 sex romp, Losin’ It) while Valkyrie barely exceeded its production budget domestically. The later Knight & Day was a global hit, but only earned $76.4 million in North America against a stiff $117 million outlay. Ignoring Tropic Thunder, a film that sold tickets independent of Cruise’s presence, none of his titles since Mission: Impossible III had spent a single day in first place in North America. For the former number one star in the world, this box office dry spell is historically unprecedented.

Christmas weekend is a time of love and forgiveness and this is great news to Tom Cruise as North American audiences finally forgave him for past indiscretions. Because of this, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol was able to earn $25.8 million and thereby become the number one film at the box office. After earning $12.8 million in IMAX-exclusive engagements last weekend, the Brad Bird action flick added 3,023 locations on Wednesday. While the per-location average fell from $30,083 to $7,483, we should keep in mind that Christmas Eve and Christmas Day occurring on Saturday and Sunday artificially deflates the box office. This is why the four-day episode for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is a much more impressive $39.5 million. Its best day in its entire domestic run should occur tomorrow.

The other positive for Ghost Protocol is that as the perceived biggest movie this holiday season, it will continue to run well over the next several days, effectively insuring it will reach $100 million by next weekend. Its current box office total of $71.9 million after ten days is in range of Mission: Impossible III and it should jump ahead of that film’s 12-day pace of $88.9 million by Tuesday. As we speculated last weekend, the massive buzz generated by the IMAX-only exhibitions cultivated the perception that this is the movie to watch and it is reaping the benefits during the strongest box office period on the calendar.

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