Tom Cruise and Brad Pitt are considered two of the last superstar actors who are bigger names than IP franchises. Yet in recent years, Cruise has used that power mostly to build up his own IP franchises with the “Mission: Impossible” series and “Top Gun: Maverick.” As famous as Pitt is, he hasn’t really spent as much time trying to open big summer blockbusters and theatrical spectacles by himself – at least until “F1: The Movie” opened to a higher than expected $55+ million opening, with most of Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” team behind him.
Since “F1: The Movie” has “Top Gun: Maverick” contributors like Joseph Kosinski, Jerry Bruckheimer, Claudio Miranda and Hans Zimmer, and has Pitt behind the racing wheel like Cruise was in “Days of Thunder” 35 years ago, almost no discussion of Pitt or this movie has come without comparisons to Cruise – and that’s before Cruise showed up at the film’s London premiere. As such, now that Pitt has had one of his biggest openings ever by essentially playing a Cruise-like character in a Cruise-like summer film, will he continue to copy Cruise for more success to come?
Cruise and Pitt had launched themselves on similar paths, beyond just co-starring together in 1994’s “Interview with the Vampire.” Both started out as hot young sex symbols and major box office draws, both went on to tackle various challenging projects and roles that showed deeper range, and both received a handful of Oscar nominations for it. Yet, ever since the late 2000s, Cruise has almost strictly limited himself to action and stunt-driven films, which have continued to grow in popularity. In contrast, Pitt has mostly done the opposite, with an equal mix of serious and lighter films.
Cruise has built himself as more of a stuntman and defender of theatrical movies than a serious actor, culminating in the massive Oscar-nominated success of “Top Gun: Maverick” in 2022. In contrast, Pitt has been more willing to subvert or play around with his own big, starry image in both dramatic and lighter films, culminating in his Oscar win for “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood” in 2019. But now six years later in the summer of 2025, Cruise has come back down a bit from his “Top Gun: Maverick” high with the less universally adored and profitable “Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning,” all while Pitt is trying for a “Top Gun: Maverick” high of his own with “F1: The Movie.”
The timing is especially noteworthy in multiple ways, as Pitt seems set on copying Cruise’s movie-star persona and blockbusters, right as Cruise might have finally peaked with his own. In fact, Cruise might now be ready to take a page from Pitt and aim to stretch himself beyond stunt work again, since his next film is for two-time Oscar winner Alejandro Gonzalez Iñárritu next fall. At the least, it may be his first movie that doesn’t rely on stunts, action or breezy comedy since “Lions for Lambs” way back in 2007 – around the same time Pitt did films like “The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford” and Iñárritu’s own “Babel.”
Since “F1: The Movie” may make more box office money than any Pitt film that doesn’t have George Clooney, zombies, ex-wife Angelina Jolie, or Quentin Tarantino involved, does this mean Pitt is setting himself up to keep being a star like Cruise again? He obviously can’t do stunts like Cruise, yet between “F1: The Movie” and his apparently real plans to play “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood’s” Cliff Booth again for David Fincher and Netflix, it seems Pitt is aiming to reinforce his old glory and star power more than his actual acting chops – like Cruise started doing well over a decade ago.
When Cruise started sticking to escapist action films following the 2000s, it was after a string of PR scandals, questionable interviews, and heavier scrutiny about his personal life and beliefs. This rare period of personal and professional difficulty led to Cruise retreating to the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, and giving it bigger action and stunts than ever before throughout the 2010s. Between that and other action fare like “Edge of Tomorrow” and the “Jack Reacher” films, it took years and many headline-making big screen stunts for Cruise to put any mentions of Scientology, Matt Lauer, Katie Holmes, and couches behind him – all by playing it safer both on and off screen.
With Pitt, his post-Oscar resume, both on and off screen, hasn’t been that strong in the 2020s, as films like “Babylon,” “Bullet Train,” and his Apple+ reunion with Clooney in “Wolfs” haven’t exactly capitalized on his Oscar win. What’s more, his largest headlines have been off-screen in the wake of his separation from Jolie, the escalating battle he waged against her in legal proceedings, and the ugliest allegations of physical attacks and child endangerment that came out of it. In that context, it is all too telling that Pitt is now retreating to a Cruise-like big-budget blockbuster and a Maverick-level lead character to revive his most glamorous on-screen image, much like Cruise did over 15 years ago.
Cruise could get away with it because he has made a career of playing Maverick and Ethan Hunt-like characters in escapist films, and eventually refined the formula to make it bigger and better. But with Pitt – someone who has usually tried to show a wider range in a mixture of genres, whether successfully or not – something like “F1: The Movie” feels like mere coasting for him, opening weekend success aside. For that matter, it isn’t the first time he’s been limited in such a large-scale movie.
Movies like “Troy,” “Legends of the Fall,” “Meet Joe Black,” “The Mexican,” “World War Z,” and even his team-up with Cruise in “Interview with the Vampire” showed when he tries to be Cruise-like, and relies more on looking like a matinee star than being a true actor, it has made him look like a far less interesting star and actor all at once. Perhaps the most significant exceptions were his initial breakout in “Thelma and Louise” and his “Oceans” movies alongside Clooney, but otherwise he’s been far better off subverting and challenging himself in films like “Fight Club,” “Se7en,” “Moneyball,” “Once Upon a Time…in Hollywood,” “Ad Astra,” “The Tree of Life,” and many others.
Yet instead of finding something in that vein for his big post-divorce theatrical return, Pitt is trying to cram himself into a Cruise-sized hole that doesn’t entirely fit him, just for a major short-term win. It might not really be that much of a win, since for all the raves about “F1: The Movie” exceeding opening weekend projections, it still has too big a budget to likely make its money back, much like Cruise’s last two “Mission: Impossible” films. But with friendly box office reporting – at least friendlier than the trades had for true profit turners like “Sinners” – soaring audience scores, secured IMAX screens through the Fourth of July holiday weekend, and having studios like Apple and Warner Bros that already have money to burn, coverage of “F1: The Movie” and Pitt is undoubtedly trying to put them in the winner’s circle.
It took a few years for Cruise to get that kind of blind faith PR back after the mid-2000s, so Pitt is already ahead of schedule in that regard. However, in the long term, trying to recapture whatever success “F1: The Movie” ultimately achieves may not be as sustainable. No matter how much fan casting there is for an “F1: The Movie” and “Days of Thunder” crossover with Cruise, or no matter what a Cliff Booth sequel might look like, not everyone can be another Cruise or keep doing just one type of movie bigger and better to repair their image forever – not even Pitt, and perhaps not even Cruise himself for much longer.
In all likelihood, it can be assumed Pitt will go back to projects less frothy than “F1: The Movie” before too long. Then again, back in the early 2010s, it didn’t look like Cruise would take decades to make something with ambition beyond stunts and set pieces again. Yet once Cruise found the crowd-pleasing archetype that put his less audience-friendly ordeals, career errors, and incidents behind him, he arguably never left it – so will Pitt keep following in Cruise’s lead, even after “F1: The Movie,” by doing the same?
Have you seen “F1: The Movie” yet? If so, what did you think of it? Do you think it will be an Oscar contender? Please let us know in the comments section below and on Next Best Picture’s X account.
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