5 Biggest Tom Cruise Box Office Flops Of All Time, Ranked

It's staggering to think about how bankable Tom Cruise has been. Starting with 1986's "Top Gun," all but four of his subsequent star vehicles for the next 20 years grossed at least $70 million domestically. Including "Top Gun," 14 of his movies have generated $100+ million domestically, including original titles like "Jerry Maguire" and "Collateral." Audiences just couldn't get enough of the man who anchored the "Mission: Impossible" series. While Cruise's ability to successfully launch original films isn't quite as potent today, he remains the face of (currently) the highest-grossing non-Marvel movie of the 2020s domestically, "Top Gun: Maverick."

Tom Cruise's career has been a focal point of the marketing for the Alejandro González Iñárritu satirical comedy "Digger," the actor's return to adult-skewing non-tentpoles. One of the "Digger" trailers was even largely comprised of highlights from his extensive filmography. However, Cruise's box office track record isn't all "War of the Worlds" and "Rain Man." His five biggest box office flops (ranked below from least to most infamous and costly) unfortunately encapsulate that. Even a guy known for turning courtroom dramas like "A Few Good Men" into box office sensations has had several financial mishaps.

One note before going forward: two Cruise flops, "Mission: Impossible- Dead Reckoning" and "The Final Reckoning" are not included because their status as bombs was only because their budgets ballooned due to external factors like COVID-19.

In 1984, Tom Cruise leapt to stardom with "Risky Business." Then, two years later, "Top Gun" ran over countless box office bombs turning 40 in 2026. These two films solidified what a massive draw Cruise was as well as his ability to anchor motion pictures of all stripes. Strangely, though, in between was another Tom Cruise star vehicle that not only wasn't as successful, but an outright flop. That would be 1986's "Legend," a fantasy adventure full of unicorns and Tim Curry's Satan-esque figure known as Darkness. Here, Cruise played Jack O' The Green, who is determined to prevent the world and Princess Lili (Mia Sara) from becoming controlled by Darkness.

Universal Pictures finally brought "Legend" to the United States in April 1986, just a month before "Top Gun" zoomed into theaters. Costing $25 million to make (elaborate fantasy sets don't come cheap), "Legend" only grossed $23.5 million worldwide, including a disastrous $8 million in North America. Audiences weren't going crazy over costly fantasy epics in the mid-80s, as evidenced by other disappointments like "Willow" and "Labyrinth." Poor reviews, though, were a problem specific to "Legend" that undoubtedly kept some viewers away.

"Legend" is also weird in Tom Cruise's filmography in that he's not at all its main draw. "Oblivion" and "Days of Thunder" leaned entirely on Cruise's face, while Curry's extravagant demon was the centerpiece of the "Legend" marketing. Perhaps emphasizing Cruise in the promos could've saved this one from financial disarray. 

Even before the Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz-starring "Knight and Day" hit theaters, there were ominous signs that this wasn't connecting with people. Major press outlets reported its dismal advanced box office tracking with the general public, while the memories of Cruise hopping on Oprah's couch five years earlier were still fresh in people's minds. Even though supporting cast member Paul Dano learned valuable lessons about stunts work by watching Tom Cruise on set, potential moviegoers didn't perceive "Knight and Day" as essential.

Its eventual box office haul, unfortunately, couldn't evade all that toxic pre-release buzz. Despite an ample pre-Fourth of July weekend launchpad, "Knight and Day" only grossed $261.9 million worldwide and a meek $76.4 million domestically. That North American cume was a little under a third of what Cruise's "War of the Worlds" grossed back in 2005, a chasm reflecting how much his star power had dwindled. Given how bouncy and light-hearted "Knight and Day" was, this was a frustrating development. How on Earth could Cruise anchor a more audience-friendly original movie?

Unsurprisingly, Cruise's next motion pictures were forays into sequels and/or adaptations of pre-existing material, like "Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol" or "Jack Reacher." "Knight and Day" fizzling out financially was unsurprising, but that didn't stop it from impacting Cruise's career.

Today, "Edge of Tomorrow" has garnered a positive reputation. Emily Blunt's star turn in this Doug Liman directorial effort has become acclaimed, while the dark comedy emanating from Cruise endlessly perishing throughout the sci-fi film's time loop storyline has become similarly revered. However, this story of a cowardly major being forced to endure an alien invasion repeatedly after getting stuck in a time loop didn't initially connect with audiences. In truth, "Edge of Tomorrow" was originally a box office flop.

This is despite "Edge of Tomorrow" demonstrating strong legs domestically, with the feature doing roughly 3.5 times its $28.7 million opening weekend for a $100.2 million North American haul. That strong word-of-mouth and a $370.5 million worldwide gross, though, couldn't ward away perceptions that "Edge of Tomorrow" fell short financially. It was later confirmed that "Edge of Tomorrow" lost money for all its financiers, a reflection of how this grimly colored action-heavy film would have limited appeal to the mainstream public, no matter how strong word-of-mouth was. 

Competition from "Maleficent" and "22 Jump Street" in its early June 2014 release date certainly didn't help. These box office challenges are one of the key reasons why "Edge of Tomorrow 2" will likely never happen. At least, unlike other Tom Cruise flops, "Tomorrow" is highly regarded artistically.

2012's "Rock of Ages," an adaptation of the stage musical of the same name, was an '80s pop hit jukebox musical chronicling Sherrie Christian (Julianne Hough) and Drew Boley (Diego Boneta) arriving in Los Angeles. These two nobodys harbor great dreams that get challenged by the compromises that come with pursuing their ambitions. Also factoring into the scattered story is fictional rock legend Stacee Jaxx (Tom Cruise). "Rock of Ages" hailed from director Adam Shankman, whose previous summertime New Line Cinema musical, "Hairspray," made lots of money. 

Despite "Rock of Ages" being the only movie (as far as this author knows) to feature Bryan Cranston getting spanked in tune to the beat of Pat Benatar's "Hit Me With Your Best Shot," this feature didn't come close to being the next "Hairspray." The $75 million budgeted title grossed only $59.4 million worldwide, including a disastrous $20.9 million internationally, a surprise given how reliable Cruise movies usually prove overseas. Part of the problem, though, was that the crowded cast made it hard to sell this as a Cruise star vehicle.

Plus, as far as jukebox movie musicals go, "Rock of Ages" and its dimly lit and digitally-shot vision of Los Angeles was nowhere near as appealing to moviegoers as the luscious sunny Greece locales of "Mamma Mia!" Needless to say, there's endless reasons why this musical bombed. Tom Cruise hit a sour financial note stepping into this genre for the first time.

There is no greater embarrassment in Tom Cruise's movie career than "The Mummy." For starters, it's inexplicable why he signed onto this project. It'd be one thing for an up-and-coming star to sign on to a movie angling to start its own Marvel Cinematic Universe. Cruise, though, didn't need the fame nor financial security. Meanwhile, this was only the second directorial effort from Alex Kurtzman, who only had a passing connection to Cruise (he co-wrote "Mission: Impossible III"). In other words, it's not like doing "The Mummy" would've gotten Cruise work with Quentin Tarantino or Yorgos Lanthimos.

Worst of all, absolutely nothing in the dreadful script, which concerns soldier Nick Morton (Cruise) confronting the ancient mummy Ahmanet (Sofia Boutella), illuminate why Cruise took this boondoggle on. Everything about this endeavor defies explanation, which makes it unsurprising "The Mummy" flopped at the box office. Its $409.23 million worldwide gross eventually led to it losing a projected $95 million, a normally unthinkable loss for a movie star who got "Cocktail" to $171.5 million worldwide.

However, audiences didn't want a shared franchise built on the old Universal Monsters and nothing in "The Mummy" looked any different from standard post-2012 American tentpoles. Rigidly following a studio executives idea for why the MCU succeeded ensured "The Mummy" was a colossal financial failure and one of the worst movies of 2017. For the love of Xenu, why Tom?