For over a month, our insiders have been telling us Paramount and Warner Bros. see Robert Pattinson as “the next Tom Cruise.”
The industry scorecard just caught up. Puck News has named Pattinson its “Who Won the Week.”
Per Puck, the Twilight veteran has been building a resume of “commercial hits and prestige plays,” and this weekend capped it.
The Numbers Behind The Win
Primetime opened to $19.2 million domestic, the third-best opening weekend ever for A24, a bigger debut than Timothee Chalamet’s far pricier Marty Supreme managed last December.
Pattinson’s year also includes The Drama at $135 million worldwide and The Odyssey at $1.6 billion and counting.
Dune: Part Three arrives in December.
Add it all up and Puck calls Pattinson “basically the male Anne Hathaway of 2026,” with one caveat: “without the Oscar… yet.”
‘The Next Tom Cruise’
The Puck pick lands right on top of our insider reporting.
On August 19, a source called Pattinson “in top form and a strong early Oscar favorite” for Dune 3.
Two days later came our report that David Ellison is going all in on Batman, with early reaction to The Batman Part II “off the roof” and Paramount and WB viewing Pattinson as “the next Tom Cruise.”
On September 27, our Paramount insider went further: Pattinson is “100% locked in,” the dailies are “blowing people’s minds,” and the studio is expecting a mega hit.
That same report noted Pattinson is thought to be in line for an Oscar nomination for Primetime, Dune 3, or both.
So Puck’s “yet” may not last long.
Pattinson suits back up in The Batman Part II, in theaters February 18, 2028. Everything we’re tracking on the sequel lives in our The Batman Part II guide.
