Tom Cruise told a London audience he is buoyant about the future of cinema, despite existential threats from AI and streaming.
“We’re going to do it, we’re going to keep creating,” he said at the Bafta event in London on September 22, ahead of Warner Bros’ release of Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s dark comedy Digger, in which he stars with Sandra Hüller, Riz Ahmed and John Goodman, on October 2.
“[AI] is coming and it is going to happen, but people want to see real things, and we’re seeing that,” said Cruise. ”We’re seeing that in the summer [box office]. We’re seeing people together like never before. So that is what I know. That is what’s true for me.”
Both the US and UK-Ireland box offices have recorded their highest-grossing summers on record in 2026.
“I have nothing against streaming or anything like that,” he added. “It’s a different art form. Theatre is a different art form… It seems the same, and it can’t be treated as the same.
“Streaming and everything has its value and entertainment – it’s wonderful. I want everyone to have these jobs and work. But theatrical – we’re all here together. That’s why I like us in theatres together. That’s why I like to go to live performances, and as humanity, we feel that. When you see these films, the practical nature of the movies that I make and why I keep pushing it, why I keep developing this kind of technology is that craftsmanship. I grew up with it. I know how valuable that is, and I don’t want to lose that.”
Cruise was taking part in a conversation as part of Bafta’s Life In Pictures strand, reflecting on key career moments, including facing the US studios’ reluctance to make Rainman and Born On The Fourth Of July, being inspired by Cirque Du Soleil when shooting the first Mission: Impossible, devising his own opening monologue for Magnolia and his insistence of being in every production and marketing meeting ahead of signing to star in Top Gun in 1986.
Cruise’s first producer credit was 1996’s Mission: Impossible, and he has producer credits on the franchise’s subsequent films as well as the likes of Top Gun: Maverick, Elizabethtown, Jack Reacher, Vanilla Sky, The Last Samurai and Digger.
He insisted that turning his hand to directing is not a priority.
“I’d been asked, you know, years beforehand [prior to Mission: Impossible] to direct a movie. Steven Spielberg’s like ‘You should direct for different people.’ I was like, ‘I want to act.’ I don’t want to miss that opportunity to have that collaboration.”
When asked if a third Top Gun might be incoming, Cruise remained coy: “Let me just get through tonight.”
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