Hollywood superstar Tom Cruise collected a cool $70m (£43.4m) for starring in the 1996 blockbuster Mission: Impossible, it has emerged.

The 37-year-old, who also produced the movie, boosted his salary by striking a deal with Paramount Pictures which gave him a percentage of the profits, plus a share of TV, video and merchandise sales.

Sumner Redstone, the chief executive of Paramount's parent company Viacom, revealed the figure during a press conference in Germany. He said the film, based on the cult 1960s TV series, earned $464.9m (£288.8m) worldwide.

Cruise played renegade spy Ethan Hunt, who sets off to find out who was reponsible for killing most of his team during a disastrous mission in the explosive action thriller.

Long-awaited sequel

He also stars in the follow-up Mission: Impossible 2, which was shot mainly in Australia during 1999. It is set to become one of 2000's biggest box office earners when it is released in May.

In the film, Hunt teams up with a British team to stop a lethal virus from falling into the wrong hands.

Directed by John Woo of Face/Off fame, it also stars British actors Sir Anthony Hopkins, Thandie Newton and Dougray Scott.

Cruise's basic salary for Mission Impossible 2 has not been disclosed, but it is thought the figure will be nearer his regular $20m (£12.4m).

However, there were reports he had opted for another money-spinning percentage deal instead, worth 30% of the film's gross revenue.

This week Cruise is due at the Berlin Festival where his new film Magnolia is in the running for the prestigious Golden Bear award.

Last month he won a best supporting actor Golden Globe for his performance as a seedy TV guru in the film.