Tom Cruise backs Paramount's 30-movies-a-year promise

Tom Cruise is publicly endorsing Paramount CEO David Ellison's pledge to release 30 movies a year if the studio's proposed merger with Warner Bros. Discovery closes. 

Speaking on The Pat McAfee Show on Tuesday, where he was appearing to promote his newly announced Days of Thunder sequel, Cruise offered an enthusiastic vote of confidence when asked about Ellison's commitment. 

"I think it's awesome. You know, here's the thing: they're going to deliver 30 movies. It's a community to me. It's not an industry. The people in these studios are not just people in the studios, they're my family," Cruise said. 

"I know we're going to get those 30 movies. I want us all to come together as a community to help make those 30 movies."

Cruise framed the pledge as a broader opportunity for the industry rather than something limited to Paramount alone. 

"It's not just going to be Paramount doing it. Everyone's going to need all the help of every artist to be able to do it," he said, adding optimistically, "[If] we do well with those, those 30 movies are going to turn into 40 movies." 

He went on to connect the initiative to giving newer filmmakers the same career-building opportunities he's had, name-checking directors like Alejandro Iñárritu, Steven Spielberg and Christopher Nolan. 

"It's not good enough that I just get to make this movie for me. I see so many talented people that I want them to have that opportunity, to make the films that they want and be able to... these artists, all these greats, they got to cut their teeth and learn in the same way that you get to act and you're learning... And the only way you do it is we have to create an abundance. It's production begets production."

Ellison first unveiled the 30-films-a-year pledge at CinemaCon in April, alongside a commitment to a 45-day exclusive theatrical window for Paramount and Warner Bros. releases going forward. 

The promise has drawn some skepticism across Hollywood given the scale of the proposed $111 billion merger, which remains contested by a coalition of state attorneys general in an ongoing antitrust case, with a trial currently set for March 2. 

Cruise has deep, decades-long ties to the studio, having starred in all eight Mission: Impossible films along with the Top Gun franchise, The Firm, Vanilla Sky, Collateral, War of the Worlds and Jack Reacher.