Heading into the release of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, everyone was operating under the assumption that Tom Cruise would do exactly what he did last year when Top Gun: Maverick arrived and drag the box office by the scruff of its neck to where it needed to be after a string of high-profile bombs.
Unfortunately, that hasn’t turned out to be the case, with the seventh installment in the long-running espionage franchise finding itself falling well short of expectations, something that’s been the case ever since its opening weekend. Of course, nothing stood a chance in the face of Barbenheimer, but M:I 7 hasn’t even been able to keep pace with surprise breakout sensation Sound of Freedom.
As if Cruise being forced to cede the majority of IMAX screens to Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer wasn’t enough, Dead Reckoning Part One is now shedding a massive number of regular screens in its third frame. By dropping out of over 1100 locations nationwide, the writing could be on the wall for the movie’s chances of finding any sort of notable traction among domestic audiences.
The good news is that Mission: Impossible has always been much more of a global brand, with anywhere up to 75 percent of its total ticket sales coming from overseas. However, Ethan Hunt’s latest adventure hasn’t even cracked $400 million worldwide yet, so all those predictions about Dead Reckoning coasting to a status as the saga’s highest-grossing adventure yet could prove to be well wide of the mark.