The more Tom Cruise runs the better his movies are, research finds | indy100 | indy100

Tom Cruise is an acquired taste but when he gets it right, he really gets it right.

The Hollywood veteran is now 56 but he still knows how to hang with all the young kids and, judging by the success of his latest movie, he still has more than a few tricks up his sleeve.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout, the sixth film in the franchise, opened worldwide this weekend to a staggering $92 million from its 36 markets.

Not bad going at all but what makes a Tom Cruise movie so special? Spectacular action? Great acting? A well-timed one-liner?

The answer is actually running. Yes, that's right. The physical activity of putting one foot in front of the over in quick succession is what brings in the moolah for Mr. Cruise at the box office.

In nearly all of his 41 films, Cruise runs or sprints at least once, according to research by Rotten Tomatoes.

They found that the more he runs in a movie, the more likely that film is to find success at the box office,

Rotten Tomatoes discovered this by measuring the distance Cruise covers in movies from zero feet to 1,000 feet or more and, lo and behold, the further distance he covers in a movie, the more money the flick makes.

Around 71 per cent of his movies sees Cruise run 1,000 ft or more, translating to an average inflated international gross of approximately $538 million (£410m) at the box office.

This precise bit of mathematics was found using the formula of watching each scene where Cruise gets his jog on and found that he could average a six-minute mile (or 14.6 feet per second).

The film where he runs the most is reportedly 2006's Mission: Impossible III where he fictionally ran 3,212 ft. This was followed by Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol where he achieved 3,066 ft.

The top 10 Tom Cruise movies, according to his pedometer:

Mission: Impossible III – 3,212 feet
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – 3,066 feet
War of the Worlds – 1,752 feet
Minority Report – 1,562 feet
The Firm – 1,241 feet
Edge of Tomorrow – 1,065 feet
Jack Reacher: Never Go Back – 1,051 feet
The Mummy – 1,022 feet
Mission Impossible – Rogue Nation – 1,007 feet
Vanilla Sky – 832 feet

Interestingly, a couple of movies in there - such as Jack Reacher: Never Go Back and The Mummy - didn't perform that well at the box office but they might be an exception to the rule.

At the other end of the scale, in movies where Cruise did almost no running, were titles like Tropic Thunder and this writers personal fave Cruise film, Magnolia, where the actor gives very different but otherwise remarkable performances.

So, while his biggest money earners do see him give Usain Bolt and The Flash a run for his money, don't skip his smaller films as they are well-worth your time.

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