Couch jumping nut job, avid supporter of Scientology, one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, take your pick, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is definitely not your average actor.

Over the course of 30 years Tom Cruise established himself as a true Hollywood star, the kind that is born, not made. From his famous Risky Business dance in 1983 to almost killing his career with that Oprah incident and finally Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol today, Hollywood is a lot less boring thanks to Tom Cruise. Here are the top 10 worldwide box office hits of his career unadjusted for inflation.

10. The Firm (1993) $270.2 million – Sydney Pollack’s thriller is the story of law school graduate Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise). He is offered a great job by ‘The Firm’, a sinister company with more than a few dubious clients. When the FBI gets involved and asks for his help, Mitch must make a choice that will change the rest of his life. If you haven’t seen The Firm yet definitely check it out.

9. Jerry Maguire (1996) $273.6 million – Successful sports agent Jerry Maguire has a moral epiphany, realizing the wrongs of his life and career. The next day he is fired by his boss and loses all his clients except a so-so football player Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr in an Oscar winning performance). Helped by a former secretary that still believed in him (Renee Zellweger), Jerry Maguire tries to rebuild his career from scratch. Among my favorites of all time, Jerry Maguire is great movie you have to see at least once in your life.

8. Top Gun (1986) $353.8 million – Arguably one of the most popular action movies of the 80′s, Top Gun put Tom Cruise on the map for good. Even after 25 years Top Gun is still an exhilarating film.

7. Rain Man (1988) $354.8 million – Rain Man is one of those instant classic films that you can watch over and over again, year after year. Dustin Hoffman here plays an autistic man in one of his most memorable roles, receiving an Oscar for his performance. In 1989 Rain Man also won Best Original Screenplay, Director and Movie.

6. Minority Report (2002) $358.4 million – The first collaboration between director Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise, Minority Report is a fantastic sci-Fi thriller, ranking up there among the best of the best in the genre.

5. Mission: Impossible 3 (2006) $397.9 million – My favorite Mission: Impossible before I saw Ghost Protocol, this was an action-packed spy film that featured the best villain in the series history. That villain is obviously Owen Davian played insanely well by Phillip Seymour Hoffman. Directed by J. J. Abrams (Star Trek, Super 8), Mission: Impossible 3 didn’t receive from audiences as much love as it got from critics, making it the lowest grosser of the series.

4. The Last Samurai (2003) $456.8 million – An epic historical drama that’s often overlooked by many, The Last Samurai marks quite a departure for Tom Cruise. We’ve seen him playing a jet pilot, a parent and a super spy, but a samurai certainly wasn’t on anyone’s list. The plot is summed up perfectly on IMDB: “An American military advisor embraces the Samurai culture he was hired to destroy after he is captured in battle.”

3. Mission: Impossible (1996) $457.7 million – Based on the 60′s and 70′s popular TV show, this is the movie Tom Cruise wanted to make since he bought the rights to the franchise. Fortunately for everyone Mission: Impossible turned out great and spawned a series that’s still going even today, more than 15 years later.

2. Mission: Impossible 2 (2000) $546.4 million – Action director John Woo handled this hectic, extremely flawed but still very enjoyable movie. Mission: Impossible 2 became the highest grossing movie of 2000 worldwide and still ranks first in the series (Ghost Protocol might want to change that in the future).

1. War of the Worlds (2005) $591.7 million – Based on the popular H. G. Wells science fiction novel, this was the second collaboration between Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg. Now I saw this in theaters and honestly, I had no problems with it. It’s enjoyable and different enough from other alien-attack films. Certainly not a cinematic masterpiece, War of the Worlds is a good movie that I recommend you watch if you haven’t before.

This was just a part of Tom Cruise’s career and if you haven’t guessed yet, while not a fan of his personal life, I very much enjoy Tom Cruise the actor. Finally I’ll give a special mention to Risky Business, the 1983 comedy that put him on the radar but didn’t make it on this top 10.

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It’s almost Christmas and box office is still down from last year’s already disappointing December. We’d have to go all the way to 2008 to find a worse weekend just before Christmas. Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows opened to around 2/3 of the original while Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was less than half of The Squeakquel. The only good news comes from Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol‘s record breaking limited release.

Sequels have been hit or miss this year and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows is no different. After opening with an underwhelming $39.6 million (original opened with $62.3 million a week after Avatar), Sherlock will need very strong box office legs to match the $209 million grossed by the first one in North America. Right now $180 million seems to be the ceiling but that could change next weekend depending on how well this Robert Downey Jr. film can hold its own against the upcoming flood of new releases. The original Sherlock Holmes survived Avatar so A Game of Shadows has a certain reputation to live up to.

In 2nd place Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked scored $23.2 million, a new series low after Alvin and the Chipmunks opened with $44.3 million while the second one grabbed $48.8 million. Among TV cartoons brought to the big screen, Chipwrecked‘s opening compares to Garfield: The Movie ($21.7 million) and is a lot lower than this year’s The Smurfs. Speaking of those blue devils, a few months ago I mentioned they threw the glove at Alvin and his gang and as far as I can tell after just one weekend, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked will definitely lose to The Smurfs.

Now here’s a movie that didn’t disappoint, on the contrary, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol grossed $12.7 million over the weekend in just 425 theaters, setting a new limited release (under 600 theaters) opening record, previously held by Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason with $8.6 million in 530 theater. Truth be told, most of those were IMAX theaters with their super inflated ticket prices and around 40 of them showed the 6-minute prologue of The Dark Knight Rises. But besides all of this Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol had another very important aspect going for, it’s a damn great movie and for me personally the best in the series. On Wednesday the film expands to over 3400 theaters so I’m expecting some impressive numbers over the coming days.

Rounding up the top 5 were New Year’s Eve with $7.3 million for $24.7 million in 10 days and The Sitter with 4.6 million and $17.9 million so far.

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It’s no secret that box office has been down lately but things are about to change this weekend with the release of three major sequels, Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked and Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol in IMAX and select theaters.

Sherlock Holmes faced off against Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel back in 2009 and unfortunately for mankind the Squeakquel won ($219.6 million versus $209 million). Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows has come for payback and should have no problems taking this weekend. Starring Robert Downey Jr. and Jude Law again as Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, A Game of Shadows aims to match the $62.3 million opening of the original. A year ago I would have predicted at the very least $70 million for this sequel, today, after so many disappointing follow-ups I’m going to downgrade Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows to $65 million.

Next up should be Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked, the third entry in the ridiculously popular singing chipmunks series based on the animated characters created for a Christmas song. Previously Alvin and the Chipmunks (2007) opened with $44.3 million and went on to gross $217.3 million. The sequel opened with $48.8 million and finished with $219.6 million. Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked should open with $40 million or so and finish a good deal below the previous films. The reason for that is simple, family sequels have been down in 2011 and third entries usually make less money. But I also could be wrong.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol opens today in 425 theaters, most of which are IMAX. Making his live-action debut with this film is the famous Pixar director Brad Bird. Now this guy made some of my favorite animated movies in the past, namely The Iron Giant, The Incredibles and Ratatouille. So Ghost Protocol being my most anticipated movie in quite some time is no surprise. That being said this is the 4th entry in the Mission: Impossible series and once again stars Tom Cruise as agent Ethan Hunt. Now Mission: Impossible 3, while my favorite of the bunch, was somewhat of a box office disappointment with just $134 million in North America, significantly lower compared to the $180.9 million made by the original in 1998 or the $215.4 million of Mission: Impossible 2. Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol might be headed for $40 million next weekend but for now it will have to settle with $10 million or so. On a side note, around 40 of the Ghost Protocol IMAX theaters will be showing a 6 minutes long prologue of The Dark Knight Rises (full list of venues here).

New Year’s Eve will be 4th with $7 million for $24 million after 10 days while The Sitter is going to be 5th with $6 million and $19 million in 10 days.

Next week is going to be insane with 5 new wide releases opening from the 21st up to the 25th. We got Spielberg’s The Adventures of Tintin (already a international hit) and War Horse, David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, We Bought a Zoo and Darkest Hour. Also Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol goes wide thanks to over 3400 theaters.

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