Over the past decade, Jason Statham has cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s most bankable action stars. He has stepped into the role of an actor who can take on smaller-budgeted action movies, like the 2025 release, A Working Man, and come out of it with a positive box office take. With films like The Meg, The Beekeeper, and Wrath of Man, Statham can reliably knock out a new action movie every year.

Impressively, Statham did it without following in the footsteps of Hollywood’s biggest action star, Tom Cruise. Cruise has proven to be a big money-making star with franchises like Mission: Impossible and Top Gun. However, Cruise’s movies are full of big stunts that Cruise famously does himself, with every release delivering bigger and more insane stunts. On the other hand, Jason Statham wins fans by just showing up and fighting bad guys in the most brutal ways possible.

Jason Statham Is One Of Hollywood’s Most Reliable Action Movie Stars

Statham Releases Successful Action Movies Every Year

Jason Statham started his career working in British crime films for director Guy Ritchie and finally broke out as an action star when he got supporting turns in John Carpenter’s Ghosts of Mars and the Jet Li martial arts action movie The One. In 2002, he proved he was a leading man by starring in the action movie franchise The Transporter. Between the three movies in that series and two in the Crank franchise, Statham became the biggest action star of the new generation.

Statham got Sylvester Stallone’s seal of approval in The Expendables franchise when he joined the action heroes of yesteryear as one of the lead stars of that franchise. Since his first Expendables movie, Statham has starred as the same character type in action movies almost yearly. If only counting his lead roles and co-lead roles, Statham’s films have made over $6.3 billion at the box office (via The-Numbers).

Jason Statham Is The Anti-Tom Cruise Of Action Movies

Statham’s Movies Keep Things Raw & Dirty

The big thing to notice about Jason Statham and his action movies is that they are nothing like what fans see in a Tom Cruise action movie. Cruise has proven he can bring fans to theaters when he stars in an action movie, including Mission: Impossible. That franchise has made over $4.6 billion at the box office, and the money that any film in that series made is more than any of Statham’s solo action efforts.

However, it is also important to remember that Cruise makes movies with budgets larger than Statham. Mission: Impossible—The Final Reckoning cost $400 million, meaning it had to have a mᴀssive box office take to break even. Statham’s movies never come close to costing $100 million, and this helps most of them break even. Statham’s 2025 release, A Working Man, cost $40 million. That is because Statham is not about the big action scenes that Cruise takes part in.

There aren’t scenes with Statham hanging from an airplane or riding his motorcycle off a cliff. He doesn’t even do the mᴀssive stunts that Cruise does by jumping across rooftops. While Statham does have his deep underwater sci-fi franchise, The Meg, these films are not normal for Statham. Statham acts in movies with a lot of fight choreography, but it’s all about hand-to-hand fight scenes or fighting with weapons, and it’s nothing even like what the John Wick franchise does. Statham is an everyman fighting against all odds.

Jason Statham Is Sticking To A Formula That Works, And That’s Okay

Statham Rarely Does Anything Just For Show

Jason Statham has no reason to try to do anything other than what he does best. He is someone who kicks people’s ʙuттs, either with his fists, with guns, or even by dropping explosives into rooms full of bad guys. Statham will have a big car chase scene with driving stunts, but when it comes to Statham himself, he knows his place is to fight people one-on-one, and no one is better at that.

It is slightly similar to the John Wick franchise, but it is even more low-key than that. It is raw and not flashy, which keeps the budget of Statham’s movies low enough. They are still legitimate action movies. Jason Statham might not globe-trot like Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible or have mᴀssive gunfight scenes from start to finish like John Wick, but his movies are just as high quality as those storywise.

There’s Room For Both Jason Stathams & Tom Cruises Within The Action Genre

The Action Movie Genre Has Room For All Styles

The best news for action fans is that there is room for Jason Statham and Tom Cruise movies at the box office. In the 80s and 90s, Arnold Schwarzenegger was a giant muscleman who took on all odds, Sylvester Stallone played a Vietnam Vet who came after villains with guns, and Bruce Willis was a normal everyday guy who fought against the odds in the Die Hard franchise. There was room for all three of these action stars.

In today’s action movie world, there is room for everyone. Jason Statham is a 57-year-old actor whose characters deal with overwhelming odds by never giving up and killing anyone who steps in his way without remorse. Tom Cruise is even older, but he is someone who will do crazy stunts and deliver dazzling action and special effects that are on par with even superhero movies, something else that Statham doesn’t seem interested in. Statham will punch, kick, and kill bad guys, and he doesn’t need giant stunts to do so.

There is even room for guys like 60-year-old Keanu Reeves as John Wick, who can kill anyone with any weapon and seems almost like a superhero himself, able to survive any brutal attack. 62-year-old Bob Odenkirk and 73-year-old Liam Neeson are also still turning in action movie roles, and they do it unlike Statham in their performances. The best thing about the action film genre is that there is room for people like Jason Statham alongside the other action stars, and as in the past, action movie fans wouldn’t want it any other way.

Sources: The-Numbers