Tom Cruise Stands Alone in Top 10 Highest-Grossing Actors Without a Marvel Role

Tom Cruise hasn’t played a superhero, but he’s still one of the biggest box office stars in movie history.

While actors like Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr., and Samuel L. Jackson have spent years inside the Marvel universe, Cruise has taken a totally different path, and it’s worked just as well. As of this weekend, Cruise is still one of the top 10 highest-grossing actors of all time. According to new box office numbers following the release of Jurassic World: Rebirth, the list is packed with names from Marvel films, except for him.

Everyone else in the top ten has been in at least one Marvel project. Zoe Saldana, Chris Pratt, Chris Hemsworth, Vin Diesel, and others all boosted their numbers with movies like Avengers: Endgame, Guardians of the Galaxy, and more. Scarlett Johansson just reached the number one spot, passing Downey Jr. and Jackson with a career total of over $14.9 billion, according to box office tracking updates.

But Cruise? No capes, no suits, no Marvel cameos. Just Tom Cruise being Tom Cruise.

His biggest film to date is Top Gun: Maverick, which brought in nearly $1.5 billion worldwide. And then there’s Mission: Impossible. That franchise has been running since 1996 and shows no signs of slowing down. Cruise has been at the center of every movie, doing wild stunts and pushing the limits of what action movies can look like. A bunch of those films have made over $500 million, including the latest one, Dead Reckoning.

Cruise has always leaned into action and intensity instead of comic books. He became a star in the ’80s with movies like Top Gun, Risky Business, and Rain Man. He followed that up with big hits in the ’90s, including A Few Good Men, Jerry Maguire, and The Firm. Even then, he wasn’t chasing franchises—he was chasing stories and iconic roles.

Then came Mission: Impossible, and that changed everything. Cruise didn’t just star in those films—he helped shape them. He’s also known for doing his own stunts, including hanging off airplanes, jumping across buildings, and skydiving from helicopters. That kind of commitment made his movies must-see events, even without the help of a shared cinematic universe.

Even with actors like Chris Evans, Bradley Cooper, and others rising up the ranks thanks to superhero movies, Cruise has stayed near the top. He’s done it all through non-Marvel, non-DC projects, and that’s pretty rare.

And he’s not stopping. New Mission: Impossible movies are already in the works, and Cruise continues to look for other action-heavy films to lead. It’s clear that he has no plans to slow down.

So while nearly every other top actor has been part of the Marvel machine, Cruise is doing things his own way. And clearly, it’s still working.

As the numbers show, you don’t need to play a superhero to be a box office legend. Sometimes, being Tom Cruise is enough.

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