No one could have foreseen this disaster.
Last summer, the whole movie season was about Tom Cruise saving theaters with “Top Gun Maverick.”
But what a difference a year makes. “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” are booming after just 1 week, adding theaters and breaking records.
But “Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning” is sitting there like a lox. Today, Paramount is withdrawing it from 1,300 theaters in its 3rd week. Total box office is around $125 million, a fraction of what the studio — and frankly what all of us — thought would happen.
To make matters worse “Dead Reckoning” is Part 1. With these results, there’s legitimate fear about how to gin up excitement about the sequel which is due next summer. The price tag for Part 1 is said to be about $300 million because of well, everything involved. The total price for both movies could be $400 million or more.
So far, the worldwide gross for Part 1 is around $400 million with most that from foreign countries.
It isn’t like Part 1 didn’t get good reviews. Critics loved it, and audiences that saw it did, too. But it was all about timing. According to insiders, Paramount was scared that “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” would be a massive hit, so they stayed away from July 4th weekend thinking Indy’s second weekend would be a monster.
As it turned out, “Dial of Destiny” made no impact in its second weekend and July 4th was wasted. By the time “Mission Impossible” launched, “Barbenheimer” was looming. Indeed “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” were so well marketed together and apart, that they moved in on Part 1’s territory fast. And now those two have eaten up IMAX theaters, regular theaters, and audience disposable income.
What will happen to “Dead Reckoning Part Two”? Post-production is underway, but there had better be some surprises — like some characters rising from the dead maybe? Let’s hope there’s a plot twist of all time!
