Tom Cruise Was A Bigger Movie Star In The 1990's Than Tom Hanks

I was shocked Brandon even brought this up. Tom Hanks certainly lays stake to the claim of being the best actor of the 1990's. He won back-to-back Best Actor Oscars for Philadelphia and Forrest Gump. Mix in great performances in Apollo 13, Saving Private Ryan and The Green Mile and that's one hell of a resume. He was never the biggest star of the 1990's.

Tom Cruise isn't just the biggest movie star of the 1990's, he's the biggest movie star of my lifetime. The Firm, A Few Good Men, Interview With A Vampire, Mission: Impossible and Jerry Maguire all made more than $100 million dollars domestic. The Tom Hanks side would fairly point to him having SIX movies make over $100 million or more domestic during that decade. That's not even counting Toy Story.

But hear me out. Much of the success of Cruise's movies were Cruise himself. Let's go through Hanks' $100 million movies:

Sleepless In Seattle & You've Got Mail: That's as much Meg Ryan as Tom Hanks. 

Saving Private Ryan: This was peak Steven Spielberg as well as Hanks. They share a lot of credit for this being a huge movie.

Apollo 13: This is mostly Hanks. It had a great cast but this was his first major movie after his two Oscar wins. People will go see an exciting summer space movie but Hanks was the big reason why this became a monster hit.

The Green Mile: This is Hanks too. It's not going to hurt adapting Stephen King but the director Frank Darabont did the same thing a few years earlier with The Shawshank Redemption and no one saw that. Hanks is the different maker.

Forrest Gump: Hanks gets most of the credit here but this was bigger than him. This became a cultural touchstone. It was a gigantic movie that was even bigger than the star. There is no Tom Cruise movie in the 1990's that was bigger than Cruise. That's the point I'm trying to make.

People went to see Jerry Maguire simply because of Tom Cruise. The Firm was a big John Grisham book but look at that movie poster. It's all Tom Cruise. He literally started a giant franchise (Mission: Impossible) in the 1990's on the back of him being a giant star.

To be fair, it's probably closer than I initially thought. Tom Hanks is without a doubt the greatest actor of the 1990's. But, Tom Cruise is the biggest star.

Brandon Walker and I discuss Jerry Maguire as well as Air in this episode of DOUBLE PLAY.  As always, Brandon's opinions are wrong. You can watch the whole episode below or click HERE to listen: