Tom Cruise is the unofficial movie star ambassador of the theatrical experience. He only makes movies, no television. He only makes movies that are screened in theatres, preferably IMAX. He is known to have gone out of his way to ensure that his movies hit theatres first, never streaming.

It is now summer box office season, the most important season for theatrical business. And when Tom’s not promoting his own summer movies, he usually shows up for at least one other movie – last year he started early, hyping up Sinners in the spring.

Then he actually attended the F1 premiere, posing for a photo with Brad Pitt for the first time in decades. The year before it was Twisters, since Glen Powell is his protégé. In 2023 he Barbeinheimed, bought tickets for both movies and saw them back-to-back. What will it be in 2026?

I thought maybe it could be Disclosure Day, since he’s made two movies with Steven Spielberg (Minority Report and War of the Worlds) and also knows Emily Blunt well, but he wasn’t at the premiere last night, instead going out for dinner with James Corden. He still could help promote it though – it opens on Friday. Or maybe he’s waiting for The Odyssey since he’s definitely a fan of Christopher Nolan. It wasn’t just Oppenheimer for him, before that, in 2020, during COVID, Tom made headlines when he went to see Tenet in theatres with a mask on.

The next question is… who shows up for him when Alejandro González Iñárritu’s Digger comes out later this year? We’ve been speculating about this for a year – that Tom Cruise will be campaigning for an Oscar nomination for his performance in this film. Test screenings for Digger have been happening for a few weeks now and from what I’ve seen, it’s mostly positive. And, yes, Tom is unhinged as a billionaire who basically ruins the world and then decides that it’s his calling to save it. So which celebrities will report for duty to stump on behalf of Hollywood’s biggest movie star who’s yet to win an Oscar?

For now, Tom continues to maintain a low profile, as usual, and continues to remain off-set, which is unusual. He hasn’t worked in a minute – although they’re for sure moving ahead with Top Gun 3, with him attached, but that script looks like it’s not even close to being ready. He’s in LA though, and has been for months now, instead of England; this is a point I’ve made often over the last year and it’s worth noting because he spent over a decade living in the UK, away from Hollywood, and his return to the center of the entertainment industry does suggest that he’s willing to engage with the community again. Will it pay off in the form of a trophy?

Tom Cruise and James Corden have dinner in Beverly Hills, June 8, 2026

Photo credits: The Hollywood JR/Backgrid

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