Steven Spielberg Has Credited This One Person With Saving The Movie Business

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On Monday, the Academy Awards held its annual luncheon for all of its nominees, meaning some of Hollywood’s biggest stars spent the day mingling, including the legendary likes of Steven Spielberg and Tom Cruise.

In a video posted to Twitter, Spielberg — who worked with Cruise on his 2005 film War of the Worlds — can be heard telling the 60-year-old star that he might’ve saved both the theatrical distribution model and the movie business at large with the release of Top Gun: Maverick.

“You saved Hollywood’s ass… you might have saved theatrical distribution,” the iconic director can be heard telling Cruise, whose commitment to releasing Top Gun: Maverick in theaters resulted in a billion-dollar film that captured the pop cultural zeitgeist in the way movies used to.

Both Cruise and Spielberg are responsible for Best Picture nominees this year, as Cruise produced and starred in Top Gun: Maverick, while Spielberg produced and directed The Fabelmans.

The 2023 Academy Awards will be held on Sunday, March 12 at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. The ceremony will be hosted by Jimmy Kimmel. Given that films such as Top Gun: Maverick, Avatar: The Way of Water, and Everything Everywhere All At Once (the current betting favorite) are nominated for Best Picture, this year’s ceremony could be one of the best in years.

As for what Cruise has got cooking for this year, he’ll next be seen starring in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which will hit theaters in the United States on July 14. He’s also currently working on Dead Reckoning Part Two, which will release next year.

Spielberg also has another project in the works, as he’s set to direct Bradley Cooper in a reimagining of the Steve McQueen 1968 action classic Bullitt.

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