Judging from some recent news stories on War of the Worlds, a.k.a. the presumptive "movie of the decade," Paramount is already predicting that this movie (which, to remind everyone, hasn't even been cast yet) could gross $1.8 billion at the international box office, which would top Titanic to become the highest-grossing movie, in unadjusted dollar terms, in the history of cinema. This is the underlying assumption behind the entire project; otherwise, it won't even break even, although Tom Cruise will earn a lot of money. (Sounds like Passion envy to me.)

Admittedly, the project has a few points in its favor:

1. The most commercially successful director of all time.
2. The most commercially successful actor of all time.
3. The ultimate, most famous high-concept science fiction premise of all time, and arguably the best title.

Will it have the highest opening weekend gross in history? Yes. But the highest grossing movies of all time (Titanic, Star Wars, and E.T., to name a few) are always the ones that surprise you. Until this movie is more than just a massive item in Paramount's balance sheet, there's no earthly way of knowing how high it can go.