Whether or not one could truly categorize at $48 three day take as "underwhelming" is probably subjective. For most movies, that would be an impressive haul. But I am happy to report with little shame that the media is already starting to pick appart Tom Cruise’s ability to draw a crowd at the box office with articles about Mission Impossible 3 failing to perform this weekend. As a sidebar, Entertainment Weekly has a cutting article questioning if Cruise is really worth what he’s being paid. Ouch!

Like I said, $48 million isn’t a bad take. But when compared to $58 million take of Mission Impossible 2 and the $65 million take of last year’s War of the Worlds, it’s not encouraging. If you factor inflation into the six-year period between Mission Impossible 2 and 3, it’s actually more like a $40 million take – which is even more sobering.

Since this percieved "failure" will strongly be making the media rounds for the next couple of days, Paramount Studios already has a few facts and figures thrown out to quell the storm. According to them, Mission Impossible 3 is Cruise’s third largest opening and it’s world-wide take was somewhere north of $118 million – up from Mission Impossible 2.

Personally, as much as I like to read about how Cruises antics has caused him to suffer in the minds of audiences, I think it’s probably a lot of hullaballo over nothing at this point. Reviews for Mission Impossible 3 have been positive. Some have called it the best of the series. So, who knows? Maybe positive word of mouth will turn it around.

Even if it doesn’t and the media succeeds in dropping Cruise to his knees, it’ll only serve to make a more remarkable comeback later on down the road. Would Cruise stop making films if Mission Impossible 3 became the financial indicate of his weakening draw? Of course not. He’d fine smaller movies. Bounce back. Maybe even win some awards.

In a perverse way, I’m wondering if this whole public erosion of audience confidence in Cruise as an action star wasn’t pre-meditated. Maybe I’m giving him too much credit, but can’t you picture Cruise hatching a plan to "kill" his action star persona so that he might re-invent himself as a different kind of actor? I think he’s dropped clues in performances from Born on the 4th of July and Magnoila that he’s capible of more than just running from explosions in slow motion. I think he’s trying to avoid becoming Harrison Ford – the guy who stuck around doing action pictures slightly past his prime. Maybe we’ve all been played for fools.

Then again, maybe not. I mean, Tom went on BET’s 106 & Park  to promote Mission Impossible 3. Check out those dance moves!

WHAT?

At any rate, please keep in mind that the book pre-order is still going on. We’ve gotten a lot of orders, but we still need several more to raise the money for production costs! The faster you get your order in, the faster you’ll get your books!

In case you forget what you’re getting when you pre-order your book, it’s 200 pages in full color. 156 comics from the first year of Theater Hopper bring in production. BRAND NEW commentary on each comic that reflects on the evolution of the strip and how I got started. You won’t see this content appear anywhere else. This if for the book only! There are also 11 guest strips from that era and a six-part crossover I did with Movie Punks, as well.

DON’T FORGET! Each pre-order comes with a signed, original and numbered sketch from yours truly! Only a limited number of these sketches will be produced!

PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY OF "THEATER HOPPER – YEAR ONE" TODAY!

Additionally, I’m still taking guest strip submissions for a three week period that Cami and I will be out of the country. I plan on running the strips starting next Monday, May 12. At the very least, I need 9 strips to run with. Right now I have 4. So I need 5 more. If I end up with more than 9 strips, I’m going to run them along with the others. Maybe a full week of guest strips the last week we’re gone. Don’t worry – I give full credit plus links to any web sites to those that contribute, so it’s a good publicty opportunity for you up-and-comers out there. Anything you have, feel free to send along to theaterhopper@hotmail.com

Last, but not least, I just wanted to send out a quick "Hello" to the readers coming over here from Real Life. I know I dropped you on the book order page (it’s a bit of a priorty right now, as you can see) but hopefully you found your way to the front page. If you have time, be sure to check out our archive! Type in any movie you can think of. Chances are we’ve made fun of it!

Take a look around. If you like what you see, please consider buying a book. I know it’s a lot to ask if you’re new to the site, but Greg told me you guys are really good about supporting web comics in print – what with the book he had out for a while.

Thanks for giving Theater Hopper a chance!