Normally, I’m a fan of Yahoo Movies and read most articles every day. Today, though, one writer on Yahoo got it completely wrong when he stated Tom Cruise jumping on a couch on Oprah and expressing his love for Katie Holmes caused the dismal box office sales for his latest movie, “Knight and Day”. That’s not true. In fact, there are three reasons why Tom Cruise can’t get the box office results he used to, but his declaration of love for Katie Holmes isn’t one of them.
For anyone who’s not heavily embroiled in Hollywood, it’s actually simple to understand why Tom Cruise’s latest movie “Knight and Day” didn’t do well at the box office. (This weekend’s opening put the Tom Cruise movie only third in box office sales, grossing $20.5 million, the worst sales for an opening weekend of a Tom Cruise movie in 20 years). “Knight and Day” isn’t a good movie, and the general public finds his continuing involvement with Scientology and his marriage to Katie Holmes creepy.
These three things are the reason why Tom Cruise has had pretty dismal results from his last few movies too. Look at “Valkyrie” ( a movie half the audience couldn’t even pronounce) an already-done-that story about the Second World War, or “Lions for Lambs”, where Tom Cruise plays a senator who has to be one of the dullest characters on film. Before that he had another “Mission Impossible” movie (yawn, that was boring the second time around, did we really need a third?) and “War of the Worlds” where Cruise had the emotional depth of a cockroach. When you look at Tom Cruise’s abysmal choice in movies, you shouldn’t be surprised how badly “Knight and Day” did on the opening weekend.
For many ex-fans though, Tom Cruise’s continuing involvement in Scientology is more off-putting than anything else. An organization that is secretive, cult-like and loves to sue anyone that says anything about them they don’t agree with, they’re not exactly helping Cruise’s movie career. In fact, every time I talk about a Tom Cruise movie with friends or acquaintances, invariably one of them will bring up the Scientology involvement and talk about why they won’t pay to see his movies because of it.
But, the final nail in Tom Cruise’s coffin has to be his marriage to Katie Holmes. An actress who was your typical girl-next-door who everyone loved, has now become a clone of what you’re supposed to look like and act like if you’re a well-behaved member of Scientology. Cruise’s obvious control of her can be seen every time they’re interviewed together and every time they’re out and about, and that is troubling for most ex-Tom Cruise fans. “Creepy” is the word I’ve heard used over and over again.
With “Knight and Day”, Tom Cruise was hoping to resurrect his movie career but that’s obviously not going to happen. The movie had problems all the way through filming (it was re-written several times by various writers as it simply wasn’t working) and now, with a fizzle at the box office it looks like yet another dud for Tom Cruise. But hey, look on the bright side. At least he’ll be making less money that he can donate to the Church of Scientology and that can only be a good thing.
SOURCES:
Toy Story3, Sander are hot, Tom Cruise not – Yahoo Movies
