This summer has seen the box office claim several high-profile casualties, with blockbuster franchise entries proving to be particularly susceptible to underwhelming ticket sales. As a result, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One barely outpacing The Flash isn’t a surprise, but there are still at least several notable positives pulling Tom Cruise’s latest death-defying outing in a positive direction.
While those early projections of a five-day domestic debut in the $90 million range are proving to be wide of the mark, Ethan Hunt’s seventh globetrotting adventure landing a three-day Friday to Sunday haul in the region of $55-60 million is nowhere near as bad as it looks on the surface, even though the DCU’s infamous disaster netted $55 million across the same timeframe.
For one thing, Dead Reckoning opened on a Wednesday so it got a head start, but it’s overseas where Cruise’s latest epic is pulling miles out in front. The numbers on home soil might be lower than initially expected, but Part One remains on course for a massive global opening weekend in the $240 million ballpark, which would ensure it comes close to matching what The Flash has brought in over the course of a month in the span of five days.
Also worth remembering is that Cruise is an international phenomenon, with over 70 percent of Fallout‘s gross coming from outside the United States and Canada, whereas Ezra Miller’s ill-fated solo debut is hovering under the 60 percent barrier, in addition to the fact it’s a disastrous flop of legendary proportions.
Even when Tom Cruise underwhelms, then, he’s still miles ahead of the competition.