Will 'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' Be a Hit?
by EG
Mission: Impossible - Fallout charges into theaters this weekend, and this sixth installment in the franchise needs to be a big hit to win back its production budget. Star Tom Cruise can still sell tickets at the box office, but he's not the sure thing he used to be. Can he make this new flick perform up to expectations? Read on for predictions.
Paramount's Mission: Impossible — Fallout will easily win this weekend's box-office race. The big question is how close it comes to matching the $55.5 million domestic launch of the last film in the action franchise, starring Tom Cruise as indefatigable spy Ethan Hunt.
Glowing reviews could prove a major boost for the sixth outing in the film franchise. Presently, the $178 million pic boasts a 97 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, the best score for a Mission: Impossible film, as well as for any Cruise film (the actor's next best is Risky Business with 96 percent).
Heading into the weekend, Hollywood's leading tracking service, NRG, shows Mission: Impossible 6 debuting to $50 million. Other services show it opening in the $52 million to $57 million range.
Overseas, the late-summer event film makes a major push timed to its U.S. launch, opening in its first 36 foreign markets. A release date has yet to be announced for China, where Cruise is a huge star.
Similar to other Hollywood event films, Mission: Impossible has increasingly pulled in huge grosses offshore. The last entry, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation, opened to $55.5 million in late August 2015 on its way to grossing $195 million in North America and $487.7 million for a global total of $682.7 million.
The Mission: Impossible series has never attained the lofty heights of other well-known franchises in terms of box-office grosses, but many of the movies have been profitable for Paramount (and Cruise). Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol, released in 2011, earned the most globally ($694.7 million), not adjusted for inflation. That film also marked a comeback for Cruise.
In terms of openings, Mission: Impossible II holds the record ($57.8 million), not adjusted for inflation.
Get the rest of the story at The Hollywood Reporter.
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