Here’s how much Tom Cruise was paid for Top Gun: Maverick. The original Top Gun was a career-boosting blockbuster for Cruise when it came out in 1986. Later this year, barring any further delays, Top Gun: Maverick will see the star back in the Danger Zone once again.
Of course any time Cruise signs on for an action movie like Top Gun: Maverick he does much more than just act, he puts life and limb on the line for the sake of entertainment. His escalating series of Mission: Impossible stunts, from dangling off the world's tallest building to leaping out of a high-flying aircraft to doing his own helicopter flying, have indeed helped keep that movie series going much longer than anyone could've predicted. Cruise didn't slow down for Top Gun: Maverick either as he climbed inside of real fighter jets in order to make the movie's flying scenes as realistic and exciting as possible.
Given everything Cruise risks with his big action movies it's hard to begrudge him the money he earns for his hard work. The exact amount he received for playing Maverick again was in fact just revealed in a new report by Variety outlining the salaries of 2021's top earning Hollywood stars. According to the report, Cruise was paid $13 million for Top Gun: Maverick. That may sound low for a star of Cruise’s stature but that number only reflects Cruise’s upfront fee and does not cover any other money he may collect on his total deal. If the film performs well at the box office, Cruise will rake in many more millions in bonuses.
Cruise has of course long been one of the highest-paid stars in Hollywood. His reported high-water mark for one role is a tie between Mission: Impossible 2 and War of the Worlds, both of which earned him $100 million. Cruise also was paid a reported $75 million for Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol. The Mission: Impossible series has indeed been a financial bonanza for Cruise as the original paid him a reported $70 million.
What differentiates Cruise from many of his current movie making peers of course is that he has not yet made the leap over to the world of streaming, where stars routinely get massive up-front payouts to compensate for the lack of back-end action on movies that don’t receive wide theatrical release. Were the actor to sign a deal with a streamer like Netflix, it would no doubt be one of the biggest ever put together. Thus far though, Cruise has shown no desire to hook up with any of the major streamers. In fact, it's been reported that when Paramount had a chance to sell Top Gun: Maverick to a streamer, the studio flat-out refused, no doubt in part due to Cruise's input. It remains to be seen whether Top Gun: Maverick will prove to be a box office smash and help pad Cruise’s bank account, but the ongoing COVID reality is definitely making things tense. Either way, Cruise still pockets $13 million which isn’t bad.
Source: Variety
