They were the two men credited with saving cinema, getting bums back on seats in cinemas around the world after months and months of Covid-19 lockdowns. And yet neither James Cameron or Tom Cruise showed up to the 2023 Oscars.
Cruise’s film Top Gun: Maverick, the sequel to the 1986 hit, grossed $1.4bn at the global box office. Its huge success was widely considered a sign that the industry had recovered after months of uncertainty, showing Covid-wary audiences were willing to return for the right film.
Cruise is the star of Top Gun: Maverick, but also a producer, which meant he was nominated in the best picture category, alongside Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison and Jerry Bruckheimer.
On Sunday, a representative for Cruise confirmed the actor is filming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part II, the action franchise’s upcoming eighth instalment, in Europe. Bruckheimer was prepared to accept the Oscar if the film had won best picture, which instead went to Everything Everywhere All At Once.
Top Gun: Maverick only won one of the six awards it was up for: best sound. It was the dark horse nominee for best picture, but has been widely credited with luring back audiences who wanted to see the big-budget action flick on a cinema screen.
Last month, director Steven Spielberg was filmed telling Cruise at the 2023 Academy Luncheon: “You saved Hollywood’s ass, and you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously, Maverick might have saved the entire theatrical industry.”
Cameron, meanwhile, was nominated as a producer of best picture nominee Avatar: The Way of Water, which is now the No. 3 highest-grossing movie of all time, having taken $2.29bn at the global box office. Avatar: The Way of Water was nominated for four Oscars including best picture, but only won one, for best visual effects.
Cameron’s producing partner and fellow nominee Jon Landau told The New York Times that his absence was due to “personal reasons”. Cameron had attended two Oscars functions in the days before the ceremony.
This year’s Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel joked about their absences, saying: “You know, Tom [Cruise] and James Cameron didn’t show up tonight. The two guys who insisted we go to the theatre didn’t come the theatre.”
“Everyone loved Top Gun, everyone! I mean, Tom Cruise with his shirt off and that beach football scene? L Ron hubba hubba,” Kimmel joked, referring to Scientology founder L Ron Hubbard.
He also addressed the possibility that Cameron had not attended due to not being nominated for best director, saying: “Some of the cynics are saying James Cameron isn’t here because he didn’t get a best director nomination. And while I find that very hard to believe about a man of such deep humility, he does have a point. I mean, how does the Academy not nominate the guy who directed Avatar? What do they think he is, a woman?”
“You know a show is too long when even James Cameron can’t sit through it,” he added, in reference to Avatar: The Way of Water’s 192-minute running time.
Cruise will next be on screens in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning: Part I in July, while the next Avatar film will be released in December 2024.
• This article was amended on 15 March 2023, to correct the figure for Avatar: The Way of Water’s box office gross. (An earlier footnote erred in calling the film Avatar: The World of Water.)
