Tom Cruise’s American Made Soars on Paramount+

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As a total movie buff, I’m not surprised American Made is still hitting hard, even years after it first came out. It reminds me a lot of Barry Seal – it just knows how to entertain! I saw it’s been a huge hit on Paramount+ this week, which proves a great story about, well, let’s just say questionable activities, will always find an audience.

Currently, American Made is the eighth most popular movie on Paramount+ and Skydance’s streaming service, according to data from FlixPatrol. While it’s not as popular as holiday favorites like Scrooged and Dear Santa, American Made is performing well, surpassing both American Hustle and Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick in the rankings.

The movie, which focuses on a pilot who starts smuggling drugs for the CIA in the 1980s, is seeing a resurgence in popularity – and it’s not a surprise. Featuring a strong cast including Domhnall Gleeson, Jesse Plemons, Caleb Landry Jones, Lola Kirke, and Alejandro Edda, the film was well-received by both audiences and critics when it first came out.

As a movie fan, I was really pleased to see American Made do so well! It made almost $135 million in theaters, which is incredible considering it only cost around $50 million to make. It wasn’t just a financial success, either – people genuinely loved it. As of 2025, it has a 79% audience score and an even better 85% rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Everyone seems to agree that the movie is a thrilling ride, and Tom Cruise is fantastic in it.

Tom Cruise Approached American Made Like His Mission: Impossible Movies

Similar to his Mission: Impossible movies, Tom Cruise did all his own flying in American Made. Director Doug Liman revealed that Cruise personally piloted the plane for every flying scene. According to Liman, the film’s credits don’t list any other stunt pilots – it was just Tom Cruise at the controls.

Making American Made was a huge challenge, largely because Tom Cruise insisted on doing all his own stunts and the film featured so many complex aerial sequences. Director Doug Liman explained they aimed for realistic flight scenes, essentially recreating car chases in the air with Tom Cruise actually piloting the planes.

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We filmed scenes taking off from airfields all across Colombia, including some that were actually used back then but are now closed – we even had to rebuild parts of them. It was a lot of extra work, but worth it to achieve the film’s ambitious scope. Tom and I wanted to make a really fun movie, but we also wanted to do things differently than usual.

American Made is currently available to stream on Paramount+.

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2025-12-24 05:06