Steven Spielberg on the profits of Schindler's List: 'It is blood money, didn't take a single dollar from the profits'

Veteran filmmaker Steven Spielberg is known for path-breaking cinema, and one of his path-breaking films is the 1993 classic Schindler’s List. In a statement, when the filmmaker was asked about not taking a single amount of the profits the movie made, he revealed, “It is blood money. Let’s call it what it is. I didn’t take a single dollar from the profits I received from Schindler’s List because I did consider it blood money. When I first decided to make Schindler’s List I said, if this movie makes any profit, it can’t go to me or my family, it has to go out into the world and that’s what we try to do here at the Shoah Foundation. We try to teach the facts of the past to prevent another Holocaust in the future.”

Feud with Tom Cruise

Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg seem to have ended their almost 20-year-long feud. The Top Gun Maverick star had not been on speaking terms with Spielberg since at least 2005, when their movie War of the Worlds released. However, Cruise and The Fabelmans director seem to have buried the hatchet at the Oscars lunch earlier this month. At the luncheon, which was attended by celebrities like Austin Butler, Angela Bassett, Guillermo del Toro and Jamie Lee Curtis, Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg hugged and interacted like old friends. The Schindler’s List director also complimented Cruise on his movie Top Gun: Maverick and how it brought people back to the theatres after the coronavirus lockdowns.

Why did Tom Cruise and Steven Spielberg fall out?

As per reports, Cruise and Spielberg’s relationship deteriorated during the promotions of their film War of the Worlds. Cruise, who went on Oprah Winfrey’s talk show in 2005 to promote the sci-fi actioner, jumped on the couch and ended up proclaiming his love for then girlfriend Katie Holmes. The Mission Impossible star kept talking about Holmes instead of his upcoming film. At one point, Cruise told Oprah, “”Yes, we’re talking about War of the Worlds,” leaving her surprised.

Spielberg believed that the Jerry Maguire star’s antics on the show led to War of the Worlds losing $30 million in box office takings. The movie was still a hit and grossed over $600 million.

Another bone of contention between the two were Cruise’s comments on Brooke Shields. The actor, who is against psychiatric therapy due to his beliefs in Scientology, slammed Shields for taking antidepressants to tackle her postpartum depression. Spielberg was incensed by the incident and tried to make Cruise change his way of thinking.