Foreign fans could decide Tom Cruise’s M:I-4 FATE

Chances are that before he mounts a bull,Cruise will reprise his role in Mission: Impossible 4. But a disappointing start for Knight And Day has Hollywood wondering whether Cruise is still connecting with the American audience or whether the film’s timing and marketing campaign were to blame for its lackluster grosses. Such questions are the backdrop for Paramount’s scrutiny of the foreign box office receipts overseas. “It all depends on whether Tom Cruise brings in foreign bucks,” said one executive not associated with the project. Knight And Day,whose release was delayed in many countries until after the World Cup,will open in Australia,Brazil and Spain this weekend. The larger European markets and Japan are still ahead. Paramount hopes to have a script for M:I-4 pulled together within weeks so that production can begin by the end of the year and the film could be in theatres for the 2011 holidays.

But Paramount wants to set a budget “more consistent with a first movie than a sequel”,as per another source. The goal is to keep the cost at or below $140 million — significantly less than the 2006 third installment’s $165 million-plus. Obviously that means the studio is leaning heavily on Cruise to be flexible about his deal. Paramount is not offering any gross participation,and Cruise surely won’t be expecting anything like the $20 million upfront fee that he commanded when business was better for him and for Hollywood.

But for Cruise at this moment with this film,money is not the central issue. “Everybody will do their best to make it work,” said one of his representatives.
Alluding to the blowup when Sumner Redstone,the chairman of Paramount’s Viacom Inc parent,publicly savaged Cruise after M:I-3,the rep added,“No one wants a repeat of what happened last time.”

At this point,Cruise’s reps are determined to protect the star. Even before Knight turned in a disappointing domestic opening of slightly more than $20 million,a furious game of spin and counterspin was under way. In what clearly has been a strained relationship with the star’s representatives,Fox marched out marketing chief Tony Sela to take the blame for the film’s opening in an interview with the Los Angeles Times. That has not quelled a furious attack from Team Cruise,which blames Fox generally and co-chairman Tom Rothman in particular for the film’s soft domestic performance. The film has earned about $62 million to date and should end up in the $75 million range. “The correct story is,there’s something wrong with Tom,but it’s not Tom Cruise,” insisted one of Cruise’s representatives. Team Cruise points out that the star pulled in better boxoffice for MGM’s Valkyrie,a film that should have been more challenging to market than a popcorn movie like Knight And Day. The 2008 war-drama finished with $83 million in North America.

Cruise’s reps said Rothman engaged in micromanaging,leading to delays in responding to prerelease research indicating that the movie was not alluring to audiences. And they question a number of marketing decisions,including why the studio never updated a teaser poster that didn’t show the faces of Cruise and his co-star,Cameron Diaz.

The Cruise forces said the release date also was a mistake. They believe the film should have opened in late July. As it was,Knight was moved away from a July 2 release date that would have put it opposite the Twilight sequel Eclipse. The studio and the actor’s reps were worried that Cruise’s film would open far behind that behemoth and that Cruise (and Diaz) would be cast in unflattering contrast with the young vampires and werewolves. As it turned out,the film opened in third place,behind Eclipse and Grown Ups. A Fox source said though the studio has acknowledged issues with the ad campaign,other criticisms amount to “Monday-morning quarterbacking.”