Glen Powell wants to see you at the movies. So do theater owners hoping he's the next Tom Cruise.

LAS VEGAS — Whether he’s appearing in a video message to uphold the value of the theatrical experience or making a surprise appearance to promote Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning, no one gets movie theater owners excited like Tom Cruise.

Top Gun: Maverick, the 2022 sequel to the naval training film, was invoked time and time again at CinemaCon as a beacon of hope for the industry. It made nearly $1.5 billion worldwide at the box office, proving that pandemic-related shutdowns hadn’t destroyed a beloved pastime. If anyone could restore the nation’s hope in moviegoing, it had to be the Oscar-nominated star of several action franchises and romantic comedies alike, whose career has spanned five decades.

Cruise appeared at the conference, where members of the theater owner trade organization Cinema United, executives from major movie studios like Paramount and Disney and their stars gather every year to get a sneak peek at forthcoming movies. Also present was Cruise’s protégé and Top Gun: Maverick costar Glen Powell.

The two appeared together only for photos, but Powell mentioned Cruise’s name every time he had a microphone. Not to ride his coattails but to praise him for his mentorship — especially as he prepared for his most physical role yet in the dystopian Stephen King adaptation The Running Man, in which he plays a reality show participant who has to run from people who are trying to kill him in order to win money.

“I was hunted for many months. ... I’ve had my body thrashed and smashed,” Powell said before presenting the first footage of the film to CinemaCon audiences on Thursday. “That’s what I get for asking Tom Cruise advice on using a stunt double!”

Later that day, at a luncheon celebrating creatives in the entertainment industry, Powell said on a panel with his Running Man director and costars that Cruise advised him to “film yourself running as soon as possible. You don’t look as cool as you think you do.”

Following the blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, Powell led major box office successes that sparked further comparisons to Cruise. The 2023 romantic comedy Anyone But You revived hope that people will turn out for the genre, earning $220 million worldwide at the box office. He also starred in Twisters, one of the defining action-adventure films of summer 2024, which earned $370 million worldwide.

As his fame rose, so did the stories of how delightful he is to work with and how eager he is to get to work. His Texas charm is part of his appeal, as is the two decades he spent in the entertainment industry, grinding away in hopes of his breakout moment, which has finally arrived.

Three years ago, Powell received the Star of Tomorrow award at CinemaCon. On Thursday, he was honored with the conference’s crowning achievement — the Star of the Year.

“So now, I guess it’s tomorrow, which is badass. But we all know you’re only one flop away from being the star of yesterday, so I’m not going to get cocky,” he said in his acceptance speech.

For four minutes onstage, Powell expressed his gratitude to those who got him there: his parents, who appear in all of his movies; the studios, directors and industry supporters who never lost faith in him; and Cruise, who he called his “theatrical filmmaking professor,” who taught him the “extreme work ethic that it takes to fill theaters and entertain audiences around the world.”

Powell thanked fellow honoree Cheech Marin for inviting him to have lunch at the table where he sat with Danny Trejo while filming Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over. Powell was just 12 at the time, but he said he’d “never forget that gesture.”

“When you're pursuing this career and you have those sort of pinch-me moments, you don’t forget those,” he said. “And especially when no one’s inviting you to sit at the cool table.”

Now that he’s at the cool table, he’s crediting everyone who helped him get there. He praised Cruise and The Running Man director Edgar Wright, saying it was “really rewarding watching one of your heroes not make it look so easy, but make it look so hard.”

“It reminded me that to do this right, you have to love the work. You have to obsess over it,” he said. “And you can’t quit until you give audiences a reason to leave their homes and to show up.”

When Powell first took the stage at the Big Screen Achievement Awards, he didn’t draw as many cheers as his fellow honorees Lindsay Lohan and Mark Hamill, whose careers are packed with nostalgia-inducing roles. But as Powell left, the applause was thunderous. The crowd of theater owners whispered “Wow” and “That was so good” as he disappeared backstage, converted to Powell supporters. The following afterparty was abuzz about his charming speech, lingering in the minds of the people who get to choose how many screens show his forthcoming movies.

As the industry yearns for the type of movie star who can compel audiences to leave their couches and streaming services behind and head to the theaters, Powell is aware he’s been anointed Cruise’s heir apparent. But every time he gets the chance, he makes it obvious that Cruise is not in need of a successor because he hasn’t gone anywhere.

At the luncheon earlier that day, Powell said that getting to watch footage from The Running Man backstage with Cruise was a memory he would never forget because Cruise was “so stoked after watching it.”

“He’s a guy that doesn’t hide his excitement about what this all means. … The theatrical experience is working hard and investing and putting your body on the line to entertain audiences,” Powell said. “I’m not trying to be Tom Cruise, but I will say I learned so much from him on how to properly do an action movie.”

Luckily for Powell’s fans, he’s busier than ever. The Running Man is in theaters on Nov. 7, and his Hulu series Chad Powers and thriller Huntington are expected out this year as well. He also has projects lined up with iconic directors J.J. Abrams, Barry Jenkins and John Lee Hancock.

In September, Powell told Yahoo Entertainment that his busy schedule didn’t have him concerned about burnout in the slightest because he’s “getting to do the thing I love and the thing I really want to do.”

That’s what makes him more like Cruise than anyone else: his work ethic. As he told audiences in the speech that drew CinemaCon to a close, “spending every waking minute” working on making movies is “the greatest joy of my life.”

“I want to let you know, I’m here to work for you. I’m here to work for the theatergoing masses. And I’m not slowing down. I’m just getting started,” he concluded. “I’ll see you at the movies.”