Steven Spielberg hails Tom Cruise for saving Hollywood

Steven Spielberg has thanked Tom Cruise for "saving Hollywood's ass".

The legendary director gave the actor a huge compliment at the 2023 Oscar Nominee Luncheon on Monday (13.02.23) as he believes that the success of 'Top Gun: Maverick' single-handedly rescued cinema following the pandemic.

In a clip from the event that circulated on social media, Steven told Tom: "You saved Hollywood's ass, and you might have saved theatrical distribution.

"Seriously, 'Maverick' might have saved the entire theatrical industry."

Cruise, 60, had pushed for the long-awaited sequel to 'Top Gun' to be released in the cinema despite the temptation to bring the film out on a streaming service amid the global health crisis.

The movie's director Joseph Kosinski admitted that it was hard to cope with the various delays to the movie but was ultimately happy that fans had the chance to see the blockbuster on the big screen.

The 48-year-old director said: "It was hard, but it would have been much worse to see the movie get released in a non-theatrical way because it is in the 'Top Gun' DNA to be a theatrical experience.

"That is what we designed it for, and that is what Tom was adamant we were going to wait for. So, there was no question whether we were going to wait or not. It was just: How long?"

Tom previously revealed that he doubted that he would ever make a sequel to 'Top Gun' after the success of the 1986 action classic.

The 'Mission: Impossible' actor said: "It really didn't come close until I said I'm ready to do it. I was constantly evolving the story and characters saying. It was really the philosophy of, 'How do I approach it? How do we approach it to create an environment where it had the potential to be something very special?'"