Introduction
How come The Mummy starring Tom Cruise bombed, thanks to his own star power? Was it the script? An avaricious studio craving for a cinematic universe? Or was it simply that fans longed for the charm that only Brendan Fraser could bring? Now, let\’s get serious.
This article isn\’t intended to rip apart the movie; rather, it\’s going to be about laying out the case for why it happened and what it cost Hollywood and how Tom Cruise emerged from it. By the end, what you\’ll see is that this flop serves as a case study on what not to do in franchise-building.
The Misfire: Why The Tom Cruise Movie Mummy Bombed
Tom Cruise plus $125 million was supposed to be a slam dunk. Then came The Mummy 2017? Not so much. That is where things went awry:
Forced Universe-Building: Universal shoved all sorts of \”Dark Universe\” references into every scene. Viewers felt like they were watching a corporate PowerPoint instead of a movie.
An Identity Crisis: Horror? Action? Comedy? The film attempted to be all three yet somehow failed at all. Critics called it an emotionally dead CGI parade.
Tom Cruise, who had hurried through the script to make changes, did unmentionable things to Nick Morton in his own character. One moment he was robbing tombs, and then he was a hero doing great-good-in-nobody\’s-eye kind of things. This was a mess no amount of Tom Cruise running could rescue.
Fun Fact: The film\’s opening scene—military invasion spearheaded by Cruise in Iraq—cost a whopping two mil. And nobody cared.
Behind-The-Curtains: Greed and Creative Mayhem
Universal\’s Dark Universe: An Obsession
In 2017, a universe was the holy grail for any studio. Universal poured big bucks into monsters:
Cast A-listers (Cruise, Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp).
Hired a Star Trek writer.
Spent millions on red-carpet \”Dark Universe\” launch.
Output? A trailer that attracted more attention than the film.
Director Alex Kurtzman\’s Nightmare
Kurtzman (who is credited for Star Trek: Discovery) accepted to the fact that the project was in a big rush:
Script changes during filming.
Studio heads demanding more action, less horror.
Cruise\’s legendary creative control arguments.
The end result? One big monster of disparate ideas.
Silver Lining: Lessons from the Bad Film
The Mummy fell flat. But Hollywood had learned a lot:
Lesson 1: Fans Hate a Forced Universe
Marvel took 5 real years to build up the Avengers; Universal wanted to do it in one.
After The Mummy, studios like Warner Bros. began to step back (DCEU, we are indeed looking at you).
Lesson 2: Tom Cruise Is Resilient
Tom Cruise does not give up that easily. Since then, he has doubled down on both Mission: Impossible and Top Gun: Maverick.
So the lesson here? Stick to what you are really great at.
Lesson 3: Heart in Horror Is Worth More Than Big Budgets
Where is the comparison between The Mummy and A Quiet Place (made for $17M) when you want to count the sequel?
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) About Tom Cruise\’s The Mummy
Q: Is this connected to Brendan Fraser\’s Mummy?
A: Nope. Fraser\’s was campy fun. Cruise\’s was an ad for the Dark Universe.
Q: Did Tom Cruise blame the director?
A: Never publicly. But insiders say he pushed to have rewrites to \”add more action.\”
Q: Will there be a sequel?
A: The Dark Universe died in 2017, but Universal\’s Invisible Man reboot had some quiet success.
The Final Takeaway
The Mummy Tom Cruise movie is a relic of Hollywood\’s \”universe or bust\” era.
It is a mess-but one interesting mess.
Want to see ego and greed bring down a blockbuster? Watch this.
Want to see something really entertaining? Go watch Mission: Impossible again.