Tom Cruise is the latest actor to be his own brand. He didn't venture into streaming services. He has not signed a contract for a limited series. He didn't create his own brand of tequila.
The helicopter had the name of the star painted on it and the letters were more clearly visible when he landed on the retired aircraft carrier, which was decorated for the occasion with an extensive red carpet and a group of fighter jets. Tom Cruise. Top Gun. Maverick.
Dressed in a tight-fitting suit, with his hair a little messier and his face with a few more marks than when he first played Lt. Pete “Maverick” Mitchell more than three decades ago, Cruise took the stage of the USS Midway as sounds played in the background. Harold Faltermeyer's iconic theme song.
Pointing to the spectacle around him, including the crowd of fans and members of the media, Cruise said, “This moment where I see everyone without masks is very epic.”
He, too, felt like a time capsule. The three-hour promotional event — which included a group of F-18 fighter jets performing a flyover to the sound of a Lady Gaga song recorded especially for the film — recalled the halcyon days of Hollywood glamour. Days when Disney didn't think twice about ferrying an aircraft carrier from San Diego to Hawaii for the premiere of Michael Bay's “Pearl Harbor” in 2001. Or when the same studio built a 500-seat theater in Downtown Kennedy Space Station at Cape Canaveral, Florida, for the premiere of “Armageddon.”
Tom Cruise remains the main attraction
That kind of extravagance seems almost unthinkable today, when the streaming algorithm and accompanying digital marketing efforts have replaced the old publicity tour with stars traveling around the world and studios spending millions to convert the film premieres at cultural events.
Movie megastars are in charge of carrying out these events. In Hollywood, stardom has an elastic definition. There are screen legends who are not box office stars. A global movie star is someone whose name is the main attraction. They have broad appeal that transcends language, international borders and generational differences. Simply put, they can bring people of all ages to movie theaters around the world by virtue of their image on the screen.
They're the kind of stars — like Arnold Schwarzenegger and Sylvester Stallone — around which blockbusters have been built for decades.
And they are the kind of stars that don't really exist anymore. Actors like Dwayne Johnson, Zendaya, Tom Holland, Ryan Reynolds and Chris Pratt are ultra-successful, but they're also closely tied to a specific franchise, superhero movie, or have yet to demonstrate that multigenerational appeal.
Now, what counts are the characters. Three actors have played Spider-Man and six have donned the cowl of Batman on the big screen. The public has attended all of them. The Avengers may come together with big box office returns, but how important is it who puts on the costume?
Yet there Cruise is, moving forward as if the world hasn't changed at all. For him, in many ways, it hasn't. He was 24 when “Top Gun” made him box office royalty, and he's stayed there ever since, outperforming his contemporaries. He is the latest global star who continues to make films only for cinemas. He hasn't ventured into streaming services. He has not signed a contract for a limited series. He has not created his own tequila brand.
Instead, his promotional tour for “Top Gun: Maverick,” which opens May 27, will last about three weeks and stretch from Mexico City to Japan, with a stop in Cannes for the annual film festival. In London, he walked the red carpet with the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge.
