During the closing ceremonies of the 2024 Olympics, the world was shocked and delighted to see action star Tom Cruise take the Olympic flag all the way from Paris to the Hollywood sign. But how much did the Mission Impossible actor, 62, earn for his motorcycling, rappelling, and skydiving exploits? According to president and chairman of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, Casey Wasserman, a whopping zero dollars.
For context, according to StyleCaster, Cruise is estimated to have made $100 million in total on Top Gun: Maverick. For the latest Mission Impossible installment, he was paid $14 million up front, in addition to the percentage of the box office that he'll be awarded when the film premieres in May of 2025. But Cruise was so excited by the Olympics project that he did it for free.
Wasserman, who spoke on a panel at CNBC x Boardroom: Gameplan, on Tuesday, September 10, told The Hollywood Reporter that he'd originally assumed they'd only be able to get Cruise for a couple of hours.
"We pitched [the idea] on a Zoom, and the original idea was a person in the stadium as a stunt double," Wasserman explained. "We're like, 'Well, there's no way we're getting this. We're going to get four hours of filming time. We'll do the thing [in] L.A. with the Hollywood sign, he'll hand the thing off and he's done."
But Cruise surprised the team. "About five minutes into the presentation [Tom Cruise] goes, 'I'm in. But I'm only doing it if I get to do everything.'" Wasserman and the rest of the Olympics team were not inclined to argue with the Risky Business star.
Wasserman and the panel, which also included L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and actress Jessica Alba (who sits on the LA 28 Olympics planning board), revealed more behind the scenes details about how Cruise became the first actor to legally touch the Hollywood sign without anyone knowing.
There are security cameras streaming around the sign 24 hours a day, but Wasserman joked that they were shut off because of "one of those weird, lucky L.A. things." (In reality, Hollywood Sign Trust chairman Jeff Zarrinnam confirmed that they were in on the security camera outage to NBC Los Angeles.)
Cruise went out of his way to make sure he was available to film the stunts. "He finished filming Mission: Impossible at 6 p.m. in London, got right on a plane. He landed in L.A. at 4 a.m., and filmed the scene where he pulls onto a military plane. In L.A., he does two jumps out of the thing," Wasserman told the press. And one take wasn't enough for the famous actor and stuntman.
"He didn't like the first one, so he did a second jump," the Olympic chairman explained. "Then [Cruise] helicoptered from Palmdale to the Hollywood sign, filmed from 1 until 5, helicoptered to Burbank Airport and flew back to London," said Wasserman.
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