SURVEY PUTS CRUISE ATOP FILM ELITE.

Byline: Dave McNary Daily News Staff Writer

Here's a no-brainer straight from the Hollywood playbook: If you want to make money in the box office, make sure Tom Cruise is in your movie.

That's the unstartling but succinct conclusion of a survey to be released today, showing Cruise has the top worldwide box office potential among 400 movie stars. The Star Power '98 survey of 100 top film executives, conducted by The Hollywood Reporter, gave Cruise a perfect mark of 100, followed closely by Harrison Ford at 99, Mel Gibson at 98 and Tom Hanks at 97.

Tied for fifth are Arnold Schwarzenegger and Brad Pitt at 96, followed by Jim Carrey at 95, Jodie Foster, Bruce Willis and John Travolta tied at 94, Julia Roberts and Clint Eastwood at 92, Robin Williams at 91 and Jack Nicholson at 90. Despite recent career setbacks, Kevin Costner and Sylvester Stallone are tied for 14th at 89 with Nicolas Cage.

More than any other star, Cruise's films seem to be immune from failure. His last film, ``Jerry Maguire,'' took in about $270 million worldwide, and his previous four - ``Mission: Impossible,'' ``Interview With the Vampire,'' ``The Firm'' and ``A Few Good Men'' - were solid hits.

``If you look at careers, anyone could tell you that Cruise is No. 1,'' said John Burman, international news editor of the entertainment industry daily. A key fact elevating Cruise over his rivals is that his five most recent films have an average domestic opening weekend of $32 million, compared with an opening average of $9.03 million for all films between 1993 and 1997.

Cruise's top-drawer status also translates powerfully to foreign markets, the survey showed. He was the leader in most key overseas territories including France, the United Kingdom, Italy, Japan and Hong Kong.

Robert Bucksbaum, chief of industry tracker Reel Source, said, ``Tom Cruise has managed to do what's very hard for a good-looking male actor - have strong appeal to men, who see him as a hip guy rather than someone who's a threat. And women love him because of his looks and personality.''

Reel Source declared recently that Cruise's ability to boost the domestic gross of a movie is the best in Hollywood, as much as $75 million in additional domestic box office to a movie if he is playing the ``all-American underdog'' character he portrayed in ``Jerry Maguire.'' Ford came in a close second, adding $70 million in potential drawing power and Gibson was third with an additional $65 million.

Cruise's next film is ``Eyes Wide Shut,'' a romance also starring his wife, Nicole Kidman. The project, directed by the legendary Stanley Kubrick and due out at the end of the year from Warner Bros., has been surrounded by secrecy but is widely expected to rack up strong grosses.

Ford's standing might have been hurt due to worse-than-expected performance last year from ``The Devil's Own,'' although the grosses - $42.9 million domestically and $97.9 million overseas - were not exactly chump change. His status as a top draw was reinforced with ``Air Force One'' and its global gross of nearly $300 million.

Next up for Ford is the romantic comedy ``Six Days/Seven Nights,'' with Anne Heche and slotted for the potentially lucrative mid-June period.

Gibson's marquee lure helped keep last summer's ``Conspiracy Theory'' from flopping with respectable takes of $76 million domestically and $67 million overseas. His next project is ``Lethal Weapon 4,'' widely expected to be a worldwide blockbuster this summer for Warner Bros.

In a similar survey, Weekly Variety's James Ulmer recently rated Cruise as the top name in terms of ability to generate financing, followed by Gibson and Ford. And Quigley Publishing's recent annual survey of theater owners in the United States and Canada named Ford as the actor responsible for bringing in the most dollars last year, followed by Roberts, Leonardo DiCaprio, Will Smith and Cruise.

Cruise, Ford, Gibson and about half a dozen others can command $20 million a film because star power remains the key component for drawing audiences, according to Burman.

In fact, salaries for stars almost certainly will hit the $25 million level soon because agents can argue that surveys like Star Power show that the actor or actress can ensure financing, distribution and box office success.

Burman said two key trends emerge from the survey: The gradual decline in importance of action films and the surge in romantic comedies. The latter has revived Nicholson's rating as his ``As Good As It Gets'' has taken in over $107 million domestically.

``Audiences today are far savvier than they have ever been, and they're not as willing to accept action films with B stars,'' Burman said.

Still, the Star Power survey found that audiences are forgiving if an actor has a strong past performance, such as Costner. Despite racking up 1997's biggest bomb with ``The Postman,'' he ranks 14th globally, including scores of 97 in France, 94 in Germany and 92 in Japan. ``Put him in the right vehicle and he's as good as gold,'' Burman said.

The survey showed women stars have improved their drawing power in recent years but remain behind males as box office attractions. After Foster and Roberts, the best draws were Demi Moore (84), Michelle Pfeiffer (83), Sharon Stone (82), Meg Ryan (80), Sandra Bullock (80) and Barbra Streisand (75).

Star of stars

These are the top actors and actresses in global box office appeal and their ``Maximum Star Power'' ranking:

STAR PTS. (xx)

1. Tom Cruise 100

2. Harrison Ford 99

3. Mel Gibson 98

4. Tom Hanks 97

5. Arnold Schwarzenegger 96

(tie) Brad Pitt 96

7. Jim Carrey 95

8. Jodie Foster 94

(tie) John Travolta 94

(tie) Bruce Willis 94

(xx) Out of 100

SOURCE: Hollywood Reporter

CAPTION(S):

photo, chart

PHOTO (Color) NO CAPTION (Harrison Ford, Tom Cruise, Mel Gibson)

Chart: Star of stars (see text)