Cruise Is No Longer Invulnerable

Fact: The weekend numbers for Mission: Impossible: III were not what they should be. The question is, was it because of Cruise's off-camera behavior, or because the franchise was winding down, or because this is not a real holiday weekend? Next weekend will truly tell the tale. But something in the realm of $60 million was what Paramount was looking for. This is not a disaster. Yet. But these tentpoles—entirely paid by the studio—are not supposed to disappoint. They are supposed to pay for everything else. If Paramount already rewarded J.J. Abrams with reinventing the Star Trek franchise—which I think was a brilliant idea—that presupposes that they were not unhappy with what he did here. And did not see this lackluster b.o. performance coming.