“Mission: Impossible” starts with 80 million US dollars over five days and makes for a good box office success, but falls short of expectations

NEW YORK – After a global advertising campaign by Star Tom Cruise, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” started with a franchise-best $80 million over five days, but fell short of industry expectations with $56.2 million in sales over the three-day weekend.

Paramount Pictures’ debut was fueled by strong overseas sales of $155 million in 70 markets. But while a $235 million worldwide release marked one of the best world premieres of the year, “Dead Reckoning” couldn’t quite match the blistering speed of last summer’s hit film. “Top Gun: Maverick.”

Dead Reckoning Part One, the seventh film in the 27-year-old series, was forecast to surpass the franchise peak of the previous installment, Fallout, which opened 2018 at $61 million domestically. Instead, it also fell less than the $57.8 million Mission: Impossible II with which it debuted in 2000.

This puts the film’s score very close to the opening weekend the tepid start of Disney’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny which opened in US and Canadian theaters and grossed $82 million over five days and $60 million over the three-day weekend. Paramount and Skydance had higher hopes for action-spectacle Dead Reckoning, which cost $290 million to produce, not counting marketing costs.

Those costs have been inflated in part by the pandemic. Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Dead Reckoning was among the first major productions to be shut down due to COVID-19. Filming in Italy in March 2020 has been prepared. As the film got back on track, McQuarrie and Cruise helped direct the industry-wide recovery back to the film sets — albeit with some caveats well-publicized tensions over protocols along the way.

Nevertheless, “Dead Reckoning” was hailed as the highlight of the series. Critics (96% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and fans (an “A” CinemaScore) alike have been smitten with the latest Mission: Impossible movie’s stunts and car chases. Although the upcoming competition from “Barbenheimer” – the much-anticipated debuts of Barbie and Oppenheimer are imminent, and Mission: Impossible should play well for weeks to come.

Cruise, the so-called savior of cinemas last year, traveled tirelessly to breathe new life into the sluggish summer box office. After a spectacular world premiere in Rome with a red carpet on the Spanish Steps, Cruise and McQuarrie toured theaters in Atlanta, Miami, Toronto and Washington DC in the days leading up to the opening.

Dead Reckoning hit theaters at a pivotal midsummer for Hollywood, and not just because of the SAG-AFTRA strike that began Thursday. Mission: Impossible launched a week before one of the biggest box office showdowns of the year.

Although “Dead Reckoning” and “Oppenheimer” vied for some of the same IMAX screens, each film has publicly advocated the idea that a rising tide powers all blockbusters. Cruise and McQuarrie even bought tickets to the opening weekend for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” in early July. Barbie director Greta Gerwig and Oppenheimer filmmaker Christopher Nolan returned with their own gestures of support.

However, the trio of films appearing over the next few weeks will do much to determine the fate of the summer box office.

No other new release could rival Mission: Impossible over the weekend. Second place went to Angel Studios’ faith-based political thriller Sound of Freedom, which rose 37% in the second installment and grossed $27 million. Jim Caveziel stars in the child trafficking drama.

The top film of the last week: ” Insidious: The Red Door Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny slipped to third place in its second weekend with $13 million. Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny quickly plummets at $12 million in its third weekend, with a domestic total of $145.4 million to date.