USA: The break-up of Tom Cruise and Paramount leaves many in Hollywood stunned

Paramount Pictures and actor Tom Cruise called an end to their 14-year production deal as the chairman of the studio's parent company took a parting shot at the movie star's off-screen behaviour. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone told the Wall Street Journal in an interview posted online that the star's recent off-camera conduct "has not been acceptable to Paramount." Paula Wagner, the actor's long-time partner in his movie company, Cruise/Wagner Productions, struck back at Redstone, calling his comments about the three-time Oscar nominee "offensive" and "undignified." "The norm for Hollywood is to have the press release where everyone is happy and praising each other, so it's very unusual the way that paramount has handled the dismissal of Tom Cruise," said Brandon Gray, President of the box office tracking firm Box Office Mojo. The break-up has startled many in Hollywood, considering five films starring Cruise and co-produced by his company, including the "Mission: Impossible" series, have generated theatrical revenues totalling over 2 billion U.S. dollars world-wide during the past decade. And Wagner said his films accounted for about 15 percent of the studio's overall box office gross over that period. Moreover, Wagner insisted that she and Cruise chose to leave the Paramount lot and establish a new venture financed through a private, revolving equity fund of 100 million U.S. dollars. "It doesn't quite make sense, given how much money his movies generate," explained Gray. "I mean, maybe they're not as profitable as they once were, because they cost more to make and he's taking a sizeable chunk, that's I guess a decent reason to end the relationship of both sides are unwilling to compromise on that front -- Tom Cruise not willing to take less money or take a smaller piece of the pie, I guess that would make sense, but make that the tenor of the discussion, make that the reason, not attack his character or what he does in his personal life." Still, there is no debate that the star power of Cruise has dimmed. The split from Paramount followed other signs that Cruise's stature had been damaged by a string of publicity faux pas ranging from his manic, couch-hopping profession of love for actress Katie Holmes last year on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" to his strident denunciations of psychiatry. Although Cruise recently topped Forbes magazine's annual list of the world's 100 most powerful celebrities, his latest film, "Mission: Impossible III," opened in May to lower-than-expected ticket sales. Last month, the Los Angeles Times reported that Paramount Chairman Brad Grey was in talks with Cruise/Wagner seeking to slash the amount of money the studio pays for the production company -- from over 10 million USD to 2 million a year. Wagner disputed those figures, and said the collapse in talks with Paramount did not stem from a disagreement over money but from an opportunity to go "in a new direction." The departure of Cruise/Wagner from Paramount comes as all the studios are taking new measures to curb expenses in the face of escalating production and marketing costs and slumping growth in DVD revenues. "A number of stars have been going through this as well -- one could say the studios are waking up and realizing the stars aren't worth that much money, be it in how much they actually pay them for a movie, and then also for overhead if they happen to have a production company based at the studio, as Tom Cruise did," said Gray. Cruise's latest film, "Mission: Impossible III," went on to amass 393 million USD in ticket sales around the world, a tidy sum but far less than his 2005 release from Paramount, "War of the Worlds," which topped 590 million globally.

ITN Source | August 24, 2006

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