The seventh installment in the “Mission: Impossible” franchise, which debuted in theaters Wednesday, grossed $80 million in ticket sales from the U.S. and Canada during its first five days, coming in shy of pre-release expectations. Early studio projections indicated that the big-budget action thriller would open with about $90 million.
Internationally, the film has earned $155 million for a worldwide total of $235 million.
With an estimated production budget of nearly $300 million, the movie has a long way to go before becoming profitable. The costs for “Dead Reckoning” increased in part because of COVID-19-related delays to filmmaking.
It’s the latest big-budget Hollywood summer picture to fall short of opening weekend expectations (which are based on audience tracking surveys) as the industry’s recovery from the pandemic continues to take shape. Movies including Warner Bros.’s “The Flash” and Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” opened to soft numbers.
But enthusiastic reviews from critics and positive responses from audience surveys indicate that “Dead Reckoning” could play well throughout the summer.
This marks the first “Mission: Impossible” movie to be released early on a Wednesday since “Mission: Impossible II,” which collected $57.8 million over the five-day window in 2000, according to measurement firm Comscore.
The franchise installment before “Dead Reckoning,” 2018’s “Mission: Impossible — Fallout,” opened with $61.2 million in its Friday-through-Sunday frame and collected $77.5 million during its first five days in release.
“The fact that we opened bigger than its predecessor’s first five days speaks volumes about why we did it,” said Chris Aronson, president of domestic distribution at Paramount.
“We’re in the middle of summer, and this has been a disappointing summer in certain respects so far. And we knew we had the goods, and we wanted to get a jump on the marketplace and get this film in theaters in front of moviegoers’ eyeballs as soon as possible.”
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” stars Tom Cruise as international super-spy Ethan Hunt on yet another daring quest to save humanity. Among the supporting cast of the feature are Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Vanessa Kirby, Esai Morales and Pom Klementieff.
The latest chapter of the “Mission: Impossible” saga scored a glowing 96% fresh rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes and an A grade from audiences polled by CinemaScore.
“Cruise … once again suffers for our pleasure like no one else, hurling himself and his motorcycle from great heights, fighting in claustrophobically tight spaces and, yes, running and running and running some more,” wrote Times film critic Justin Chang in his review.
“For all that, he knows how to temper his usual superhuman self-seriousness with lightness and wit. He’s even gracious enough to cede some of the spotlight to his co-stars this time around, spending a fair chunk of the movie’s endgame amusingly on the sidelines.”
The movie’s opening-weekend performance was probably bolstered by the record-breaking success of Cruise’s last onscreen adventure, “Top Gun: Maverick” — which Aronson identified as a direct “comp,” or comparison, for “Dead Reckoning.” Aronson cited Cruise’s undeniable starpower as the main ingredient for the “Mission: Impossible” franchise’s enduring popularity.
“It is a testament to Tom and [McQuarrie], who have elevated these films every single time,” Aronson said.
Rounding out the top three at the domestic box office this weekend are Angel Studios’ “Sound of Freedom,” which added $27 million in its sophomore outing for a North American cumulative tally of $85.5 million; and Sony Pictures’ “Insidious: The Red Door,” which scared up $13 million in its second weekend for a domestic total of $58.1 million.
Next weekend features the ultimate summer movie showdown as Warner Bros.’ “Barbie” squares off against Universal Pictures’ “Oppenheimer” in wide release.