Matt Sayles / AP
Are fans rethinking the dismissal of Tom Cruise? While it’s no certain comeback, his Nazi thriller Valkyrie did hold its own at a very competitive Christmas box office, taking in an estimated $8.5 million on Thursday despite mixed reviews and a subject devoid of sex appeal. “Valkyrie did just fine,” said one box office tracker, considering it was up against ticket record-setters Marley & Me ($14.6 million) and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ($11.8 million). Even discounting Cruise’s unpopular antics, Valkyrie may be the little film that could. After premiere-date switches, production drama, and a year of being the punch line of jokes, it fared better than Cruise’s last feature, Lions for Lambs, which costarred Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.