Tom Cruise's Windfall From "Top Gun: Maverick": A Box Office Success Story

"Top Gun: Maverick" is a certifiable box office phenomenon. It was the highest grossing film of 2022 and the biggest hit of Tom Cruise's career. Believe it or not, this is Tom's FIRST movie to earn more than $1 billion at the box office, with gross receipts clocking in at $1.488 billion and growing. Amazingly, worldwide grosses continued to soar weeks and even months after its opening weekend, even without being shown on screens in the gigantic markets of Russia and China, where the movie was blocked. The movie has even been nominated for a Best Picture Academy Award.

All movies are collaborative, but the person getting most of the credit for the success of the film is Tom Cruise. Tom's hard work is evident on the screen as well as in his breathless promotional schedule in support of the film's release. Cruise sometimes gives the impression of a person who is driven purely by the love of cinema, but he certainly has another strong motivator:

MONEY

Exactly how much money has Tom Cruise made from "Top Gun"? A lot. And it’s all thanks to a very rare and special Hollywood contract that no other actor gets.

As we’ll explain in a moment, a star like Tom Cruise actually makes far more money from backend participation than his upfront base salary. But that doesn’t mean he performed for free 🙂

$13 Million Base Salary

Tom was paid $13 million as an upfront base salary for his work on "Top Gun: Maverick."

First Dollar Gross

Should you ever find yourself a movie star in Hollywood, you’ll want to remember the term "first dollar gross." But even then, it might not do you any good, because Tom Cruise is rumored to be the last remaining talent in the world with enough clout to earn such a condition in his contracts. Will Smith recently had that clout, but slapped it away.

For "Top Gun: Maverick," Tom Cruise is guaranteed a minimum of 10% of first dollar gross. And that number could ultimately balloon to as much as 20% depending on performance milestones… milestones which he has almost certainly hit already.

What is "first dollar gross"? In short, first dollar gross is not just a cut of profits (money after costs are subtracted), it’s a cut of a movie’s overall gross revenue. The only cost taken out before first dollar gross is the fee kept by distributors, AKA movie theaters. Movie theaters take a roughly 40% cut of gross box office receipts. First dollar gross comes before all studio production and promotional costs are deducted.

As we mentioned previously, "Top Gun: Maverick" has earned just under $1.5 billion at the global box office as of this writing. After you deduct 40% for distributors, that leaves $900 million.

When you include his $13 upfront base salary, it’s safe to assume that Tom Cruise is currently in-line to earn AT LEAST:

$103 million

FYI, Tom earned "just" $2 million for the first "Top Gun" back in 1985. We don’t know how much his co-stars from the original, such as Val Kilmer and Kelly McGillis, were paid.

But that’s not all. After the film’s theatrical run, "Maverick" has enjoyed a slew of additional revenue opportunities. Everything from a sale to a streaming platform, on-demand purchases, Blu-ray/DVD sales, then cable showings, etc.

When that happens, there are no exhibitors taking the customary 40% wedge of the profits. If, say, the film pulls in another $300 million in ancillary home exhibition profits, Cruise would be making another $30 million in the deal. If that happens, Tom’s total payday would be…

$133 million

That would easily be one of the highest single-film paydays in Hollywood history, though still shy of the inflation-adjusted $194 million that Bruce Willis earned thanks to his backend points on "The Sixth Sense."

Keep in mind, all of the math we just ran assumed Tom’s ultimate first dollar gross percentage remains fixed at 10%.

As a fun thought experiment, imagine that Cruise’s first dollar gross actually ends up rising to 20%. Which is not out of the realm of possibility. In fact, what’s most likely true is that his cut jumps to 20% once the movie reaches a certain milestone, like everything over $1 billion. But just for fun, let’s say he gets 20% right out of the gate.

If that were true, Tom’s payday would be $180 million from the current worldwide gross PLUS $60 million from future ancillary revenue sources. When you include his $13 million base salary, at 20% first dollar gross Tom’s total Top Gun Maverick payday would theoretically be…

$258 million

FYI, that’s enough to buy three Boeing F18 Super Hornets, the very same plane featured in "Top Gun: Maverick," with plenty of money left over for gas.