'You saved Hollywood's a**': Steven Spielberg's apparent praise to Tom Cruise goes viral

Tom Cruise's running into his War of the Worlds director Steven Spielberg at the Oscars Luncheon has become a subject of grand musings for the internet. The pre-Oscars event saw the majority of this year's nominees in attendance with Cruise, most definitely, stealing the show and his interaction with The Fabelmans filmmaker has now gone viral.

"You saved Hollywood's a**," Spielberg appears to say to Tom Cruise in their endearing conversation, lauding the superstar actor's efforts in putting together Top Gun: Maverick, one of 2022's biggest global box office phenomenons. 

"And, you might have saved theatrical distribution. Seriously. ‘Maverick’ might have saved the entire theatrical industry," adds the 76-year-old filmmaker in an apparently emotional exchange with his former collaborator.

Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise first joined forces for the futuristic 2002 sci-fi thriller Minority Report (based on a short story by Philip K. Dick), wherein Cruise played the role of the 'Precrime Chief' John Anderton. The two would then reunite for the H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds cinematic adaptation in 2005 and deliver their second blockbuster on the trot. Minority Report managed to gross more than $350 million at the box office with War of the Worlds collecting more than $603 million.

Tom Cruise's appearance at the Oscars Luncheon indeed came as a hugely pleasant surprise to everyone, considering his keenness to remain under the radar during the awards season. He was seen interacting with many industry colleagues, including Brendan Gleeson, Paul Mescal, and Baz Luhrmann, among others and later sat down with legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, actor Michelle Williams & Everything Everywhere All at Once director Daniel Kwan at the luncheon table.

As far as Top Gun: Maverick is concerned, the film, just as Spielberg highlighted, beckoned to the audiences to return to the movie halls following a period of a lull due to the pandemic. Steven Spielberg's praise also stems from the fact that Paramount, reportedly, turned down massive offers from streaming giants Apple and Netflix to instead opt for a global theatrical release.

Top Gun: Maverick, grossing close to $1.5 billion worldwide, is the second highest-grossing film of 2022 after Avatar: The Way of Water. The film has been nominated for six Academy Awards including Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.