Tom Cruise and Jason Statham are locked in a box office battle that has lasted for more than a decade. Both stars are huge box office draws, and in fact Cruise’s movies have collectively grossed more than $12.9 billion since he made his movie debut in 1981’s Endless Love. In addition to starring in huge blockbusters including Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds and the Mission: Impossible franchise, he has also achieved critical success and earned four Oscar nominations, for 1989’s Born on the Fourth of July, 1996’s Jerry Maguire, 1999’s Magnolia, and (as a producer) 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick.

While Statham has not been nominated for any Oscars so far, his movies have grossed a whopping $8.481 billion since he made his debut in Guy Ritchie’s 1998 crime movie Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Jason Statham’s action movies have formed the cornerstone of his career, and he has led a number of major franchises including Crank, The Transporter, The Mechanic, and The Meg. While the two stars might seem entirely different at first blush, their careers have taken such similar trajectories that they have been able to compete at the box office many times in the recent past.

Tom Cruise Just Beat Jason Statham At The Box Office Thanks To Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Jason Statham Also Had A Major Movie Debut In 2025

Most recently, the new Mission: Impossible movie The Final Reckoning, which features Tom Cruise reprising his role as superspy Ethan Hunt, has allowed the star to triumph over Jason Statham at the box office for the year. Although the previous installment, 2023’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning Part One, showed diminishing returns, the 2025 movie opened with $64 million in domestic theaters, giving it the best debut of the entire Mission: Impossible franchise. Since then, it has risen to a worldwide total of more than $225 million, making it the seventh highest-grossing movie of the year so far at the time of writing.

This total far outstrips the worldwide haul of Jason Statham’s latest movie, which is the 2025 action movie A Working Man, based on Chuck Dixon’s 2014 novel Levon’s Trade. Although the movie saw Statham reteaming with director David Ayer, with whom he collaborated on the $163 million 2024 hit The Beekeeper, A Working Man was hit by diminishing returns and only grossed $99 million by the end of its run. While that total still makes it the 14th highest-grossing movie of 2025 so far, Tom Cruise’s new Mission: Impossible movie has handily bested it, already more than doubling its gross.

Statham & Cruise Have Gone Back & Forth At The Box Office Since 2014

The Stars Have Gone Head To Head Multiple Times

2025 is far from the first time that Statham and Cruise have had major blockbusters go head-to-head in a single year. In fact, it has happened seven times in the past 11 years, with a different star coming out the victor each time. Immediately prior to the triumph of The Final Reckoning, Statham’s franchise action movie Fast X buffeted ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning Part One in 2023, grossing $704.9 million compared to the Tom Cruise movie’s $571.1 million. Below, see a breakdown of the highest-grossing movie featuring each star for every year since 2014 when they both had a movie in theaters:

The Mission: Impossible franchise served Tom Cruise well previously, with Fallout helping him outgross Jason Statham’s aquatic action-horror franchise-starter The Meg in 2018. However, it had also failed him in 2015 when Rogue Nation did not measure up to the Fast & Furious franchise entry Furious 7. However, that movie, which came out in the wake of the death of the franchise’s longtime star Paul Walker, got a huge box office boost that made it both the highest-grossing Fast & Furious installment and the third highest-grossing movie of 2015, behind Jurᴀssic World and Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens.

Tom Cruise Has A Much Longer Track Record Of Beating Jason Statham At The Box Office Overall

He Became A Star Much Earlier

While there has been considerable back and forth between the stars, Tom Cruise was clearly the box office winner of the pair before 2014. While they did alternate having the highest-grossing movie between 2008 and 2013 (Cruise won 2013 and 2014, ending that streak prematurely), beforehand, Cruise bested Statham during every eligible year. The only exception is 2004, because Statham held a minor role in Cruise’s Collateral, which is to date their only film collaboration. Below, see a breakdown of how Cruise and Statham’s highest-grossing movies of each year compared to one another prior to their current box office battle:

This early pattern ultimately makes sense, considering the fact that the chart kicks off at the very beginning of Jason Statham’s rise as a star, whereas Tom Cruise had already had the better part of two decades during which he could become a major box office draw. By the time Stanley Kubrick’s Eyes Wide Shut grossed $162.4 million in 1999 (besting Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels‘ $28.3 million worldwide take, following its limited domestic run), Cruise had already starred in 1986’s Top Gun ($357.5 million), 1988’s Rain Man ($412.8 million), 1994’s Interview with the Vampire ($223.6 million), and more.

Jason Statham’s Wins Against Tom Cruise All Have 1 Thing In Common

Cruise Doesn’t Have The Same Pattern

In addition to needing to take the time to become a widely known star, Jason Statham’s chart performance shows that he has so far only been able to best Tom Cruise with franchise installments. While this is primarily true of his stints in the Fast & Furious franchise, The Expendables had two different installments that pushed him over the edge as well. While Cruise has won with his fair share of franchise installments, particularly entries from the Mission: Impossible series, he is not constrained by the same limitations, having won with Edge of Tomorrow in 2014 and Oblivion in 2013.

Additionally, while Tom Cruise has benefited from franchise movies nearly as much as Jason Statham, those movies all featured him as the lead star, whereas Statham’s winning franchise installments see him as part of a large ensemble of characters rather than playing the core character. However, 2026 could prove to be a year that reverses that trend, as Cruise is currently only set to appear in an unтιтled project from Oscar-winning director Alejandro G. Iñárritu while Statham leads the action movie Mutiny from Plane director Jean-François Richet, which puts both stars on even ground without a franchise to bolster them.

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  Tom Cruise

  Birthdate

  
  July 3, 1962
  

  Birthplace

  Syracuse, New York, USA

  Notable Projects

  Edge of Tomorrow, Oblivion, Mission: Impossible, Top Gun

  Birthname

  THOMAS CRUISE MAPOTHER IV

  Height

  5 feet 7 inches

  Profession

  Actor

  Discover the latest news and filmography for Tom Cruise, known for Top Gun and Mission: Impossible.

  
  

  
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  Jason Statham

  Birthdate

  
  July 26, 1967
  

  Birthplace

  Shirebrook, Derbyshire, England, UK

  Notable Projects

  The Meg, The Transporter, Wrath of Man

  
  

  
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