The Cannes Film Festival, known for its mix of highbrow cinema and high-wattage glamour, recently played host to an unexpected but welcome narrative twist: Tom Cruise, the perennial action icon, has not just revived the blockbuster—he’s reviving cinema itself. According to Mission: Impossible director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise’s commitment to the theatrical experience might just be the reason independent gems like Anora are thriving.
At a packed panel promoting Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, McQuarrie pulled no punches in crediting Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick with resuscitating box office culture. “I look at things in terms of deposits and withdrawals,” McQuarrie declared. “Top Gun: Maverick is a deposit… bringing people into the theater and keeping that mechanism thriving so that a film like Anora can come and be in theaters and take the time to grow.”
In a time when streaming seems to be swallowing Hollywood whole, the director’s message was clear: cinema isn’t dead, it’s just waiting for a fighter pilot to jumpstart its heart.
Cruise the Cinema Evangelist, Not the Competitor
While the industry often pits stars and studios against one another in a zero-sum game, McQuarrie painted a picture of Cruise as a cinema evangelist. “We shouldn’t be working to crush one another,” he said. “We should be working all together to serve one another. That’s why you see Tom going out and promoting movies that other people would regard as his competition.”
In McQuarrie’s eyes, Cruise isn’t competing with anyone but himself. This mentality, he suggested, is what allows the industry to grow organically instead of cannibalizing itself.
And Cruise walks the talk—his promotional efforts regularly extend to other films, including those considered rival projects. It’s a quiet, yet powerful statement in an age dominated by clickbait rivalries and studio wars.
The Streaming Strain: Is Netflix Erasing Film History?
But where Cruise is bringing people back to theaters, streaming services—especially Netflix—are, according to McQuarrie, isolating them. While he doesn’t resent streaming platforms per se, he criticized the way they present content, accusing them of creating cinematic echo chambers.
“When you look at streamers… I would appreciate it if the homepage didn’t just shove their material at you,” he noted, “but also put classic cinema to you and encouraged you to dig down.”
McQuarrie went further, lamenting that many younger viewers think of Star Wars or Pirates of the Caribbean as the beginning of cinema history. “People don’t know The Best Years of Our Lives, The Big Country, or Cool Hand Luke,” he said, visibly frustrated. “If you want to save cinema, promote it! Resurrect it! There are great films there that deserve to be seen by this generation.”
Why Anora Owes a Nod to Top Gun: Maverick
The indie breakout Anora, which just earned Oscar gold, likely wouldn’t have had the breathing room to grow its audience without the box office boom brought on by Top Gun: Maverick. McQuarrie’s take suggests that tentpole films aren’t just popcorn entertainment—they’re infrastructure. They subsidize the cinematic ecosystem, giving smaller films a shot at the big screen.
It’s a truth rarely acknowledged: when a megahit like Maverick brings in $1.5 billion, it doesn’t just line the pockets of studio executives—it pays dividends for indie filmmakers, art-house theaters, and diverse storytelling.
A New Reckoning for Hollywood
As Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning prepares to hit U.S. theaters on May 23—following a splashy premiere in Tokyo and a special screening at Cannes—it carries more than just the weight of action-packed expectations. It’s also a cultural statement about the enduring value of the theatrical experience.