The reason why there’s no such thing as official Tom Cruise merchandise
One of the many ways an actor can increase their bank balance from their latest blockbuster undertaking is through merchandising, but Tom Cruise is clearly rich enough that he doesn’t see the need to have his face slapped on a wide-ranging amount of official tie-ins.
Merchandise can be every bit as lucrative as the movie it’s created to promote, with a notable case in point being the recent Power Rangers reboot. Everyone of a certain generation remembers the show because they were inspired to kick their mates in the face on the playground, which meant they probably had the toys, too.
Dean Israelite’s dark, gritty, and tedious overhaul may have flopped at the box office, but it almost got a sequel because it sold hundreds of millions in merch. It can be an empire unto itself, one that countless A-listers are happy to get a piece of, but not Cruise.
Every notable star to have appeared in a Marvel Cinematic Universe flick will get a hefty cheque when toys, video games, clothing, and assorted household items bearing their visage are flogged in shops and online marketplaces around the world, but at no point has such a thing as official Tom Cruise merchandise ever existed.
Churning out Mission: Impossible goodies, Top Gun: Maverick trinkets, or even Les Grossman bobbleheads is a potential goldmine, but the only way to find any of the aforementioned items is through unlicensed means. Why? Because Cruise has always retained the rights to his own likeness, and he’s never let any company use it to make an extra buck.
He’s got one of the most recognisable faces on the planet, and every poster for a Cruise flick dedicates the majority of space to his face, so it’s not as if he needs to remind people who he is. Still, it would be safe to assume that Paramount would have at least broached the possibility of creating a line of Mission: Impossible merch when the globetrotting espionage saga is one of the most notable and bankable properties in the business.
JJ Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III and Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds did get the video game treatment, but Cruise’s Ethan Hunt of Ray Ferrier didn’t factor into the equation. If anything, he’s been ahead of the curve as usual because what happens to an actor’s likeness once they’re no longer around to agree or object to its usage has become one of the biggest talking points in town.
James Earl Jones happily signed over the voice rights for Darth Vader to an AI firm, whereas a friend of Peter Cushing is in the midst of taking legal action against Disney for digitally recreating the deceased actor in the Star Wars spinoff, Rogue One.
Tom Hanks has been just one of many stars to voice their concerns with AI, while Samuel L Jackson makes a point of perusing the fine print of his contracts to guarantee he isn’t agreeing to his likeness being repurposed without his consent. Cruise has been operating by that mindset for decades, which is why there’s never been any such thing as official merchandise bearing his signature toothy grin.
