'Mission: Impossible' Has Weak Opening Weekend

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One opened well below expectations this weekend, with its debut looking a lot like that of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. Both movies had gigantic production budgets, and both received lukewarm receptions at the domestic box office. M:I is doing a bit better with critics and in international theaters, factors that may be the movie's only chance at turning a profit. Read on for details.

Via Variety.

“Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” topped domestic box office charts while falling short of initial expectations. Tom Cruise’s latest blockbuster collected $56.2 million between Friday and Sunday, a lackluster start for a movie that cost nearly $300 million before marketing.

Heading into the weekend, Paramount and Skydance’s action-adventure was hoping to establish a new franchise record with $60 million or more. Instead, ticket sales landed behind 2018’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” ($61 million) and 2000’s “Mission: Impossible II” ($57.8 million), which remain as the top openings in the 27-year-old series.

Comparisons aren’t exact because “Dead Reckoning Part One” opened on Wednesday rather than Friday. The seventh installment has generated an estimated $80 million in its first five days of release, which is more than “Fallout” ($77.5 million) and “Mission: Impossible II” ($78.8 million) earned in their first five days in theaters. With a stellar 96% on Rotten Tomatoes and a glowing “A” CinemaScore, though, “Dead Reckoning” is likely to remain a force at the box office throughout the summer.

But right now, it’s pulling in similar numbers to Disney’s $300 million-budgeted “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” which debuted to $60 million over the traditional weekend and pulled in $84 million through the five-day Fourth of July holiday frame. “Indiana Jones 5,” which doesn’t have the benefit of great reviews or very positive audience scores, hasn’t shown endurance; ticket sales stand at $136 million domestically and $302 million worldwide.

To avoid a similar fate, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” needs to have a box office run as long and unwieldy as the film’s title. The movie, which finds Cruise’s teflon operative Ethan Hunt defying death as he flies off a mountain on his motorcycle, scales a runaway train and maneuvers a tiny car through the bustling streets of Rome, was incredibly expensive due to COVID-related starts and stops and other pandemic-era safety measures. So there’s a chance that next summer’s sequel, “Dead Reckoning Part Two,” also directed and co-written by Christopher McQuarrie, will be less expensive.

Repeat business, as well as global box office returns, will be key in saving Cruise’s latest mission. Already, the seventh “Mission: Impossible” is showing strength at the international box office with $155 million, even with its weak $25.4 million debut in China. That brings its worldwide tally to a respectable $235 million, the biggest global start for the franchise.

Get the rest of the story at Variety.