Hollywood actor Tom Cruise has failed to reach the number one spot with his new outing in Knight and Day alongside Cameron Diaz, stirring debate as to whether his career will ever recover.

The highly anticipated Toy Story 3 proved to be a box office smash, with rave reviews, earning over $200 million so far in the US domestic market while Knight and Day ended up third place with a $27 million opening. Although people would say that is still a strong opening, for Tom Cruise, previously Hollywood s biggest star, it is very worrying.

The days of big budget thrillers could be over, particularly as studios struggle to recoup their big investments into Star powered movies . Knight and Day reportedly had a budget of $107 million, and many independent filmmakers would argue that a studio could make 107 feature films for the same cost. 3D movies are also becoming ever more popular with young audiences and are set to become mainstream in the coming years with 3D TVs selling fast. This could shift an emphasis on audiences demanding more animation stories rather than traditionally star powered movies. Tom Cruise might not be at fault, nor can we be sure that his couch jumping incident on Oprah several years back is the main reason for this film s below average performance.

Marketing is another major factor behind the success of a blockbuster film and as technology changes, improves and becomes cheaper to access, lower budget movies could benefit from higher investments in advertising without the need of a star to push them out.

As for Tom Cruise, it would seem that fans have forgotten his glory days as his box office power fades, or a more likely story, they want to see something different.