2023 remains a rough year for entertainment, while writers and actors are fighting for their livelihood, it looks like people just aren’t that big into going to the movie theaters anymore, or at least not as frequent. If not even Tom Cruise can bring in the audience after last year’s mega release of Top Gun: Maverick, it may be a bigger showcase of just how rough this year has been.
Mission Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One has opened at the top of the box office this weekend, but managed to pull in a soft $56.2M over three days. It did have the benefit of a five-day opening and managed to push forward towards around $80M, it’s still a far shot from the initial $90M that was expected from Cruise’s star power. Perhaps Maverick was more about the adrenaline than what he was cooking up.
Ticket sales are behind 2018’s Fallout, which still is the highest-grossing of the franchise, and even behind Mission Impossible II released in 2000. Though, the five-day total is higher than the first and it does have a strong A CinemaScore which will likely give it some good legs moving forward. Though competition is stiff at the moment with Barbie and Oppenheimer likely to bite into it.
The issue, a common one by now, is that it has a similar price tag to Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny at around $300M. While it has a bit more staying power given stronger reception and audience score, it’s still an uphill battle either way. The starts and stops of COVID are being highlighted as one major issue as to why its budget increased as it did. Though one could also argue the same for most productions releasing now that faced COVID limitations and ballooning budgets, but there hasn’t been much reporting on those cases oddly until now.
The film did, however, makeup with its release internationally at around $155M. Though China remains the same weak box office release as it has with other productions since they allowed Western productions back in. The rest of the weekend was rounded up with other recent releases. Indiana Jones passed $302M globally while Insidious: The Red Door is showing some good holds. Even Elemental managed to pass the $300M mark and stands proud at $311.7M.
Source: Variety
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