Thursday, December 5, 2024

Mission Impossible Eyes $200Mil, Best of Entire Franchise, as “War Room,” “Compton” Fight it Out

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Interesting, interesting. “Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation” is at $180 million as of today. Paramount is looking at $200 million soon, making Tom Cruise’s fifth segment as Ethan Hunt a grand slam home run. Remember, they started slow out of the gate? The Paramount gang gets the last laugh on this one. No amount of Scientology voodoo adverse publicity about Cruise hurt them.

So what happened? Well, “Man from UNCLE” fell apart. “Fantastic Four” collapsed upon impact. “Jurassic World” was already past its impressive peak when Ethan went on the hunt. Nothing came along to replace it.

And then: the breakout movie of late summer, “Straight Outta Compton,” was just a totally different demographic. So was “War Room.” Those are the two movies that caught on. This week, “War Room” won the weekend with $9.3 million. “Compton” was close behind with $8.85 mil. “Compton” is nearing $150 million.  They could also go to $200 million. Mission possible!

“War Room” puts Sony back on the charts after a terrible year. And Warners is about to have a huge boost out of “Black Mass” with Johnny Depp. Universal, already breaking records, should have a monster in “Steve Jobs” after initial reviews from Telluride. Curiously, reviews are already turning up with “Citizen Kane” and Kubrick references. Just like with the “Social Network.” What a coincidence!

Roger Friedman
Roger Friedmanhttps://www.showbiz411.com
Roger Friedman began his Showbiz411 column in April 2009 after 10 years with Fox News, where he created the Fox411 column. His movie reviews are carried by Rotten Tomatoes, and he is a member of both the movie and TV branches of the Critics Choice Awards. His articles have appeared in dozens of publications over the years including New York Magazine, where he wrote the Intelligencer column in the mid 90s and covered the OJ Simpson trial, and Fox News (when it wasn't so crazy) where he covered Michael Jackson. He is also the writer and co-producer of "Only the Strong Survive," a selection of the Cannes, Sundance, and Telluride Film festivals, directed by DA Pennebaker and Chris Hegedus.

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