Mission: Impossible 7 fails to break out

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One poster

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One still has weeks for its theatrical run. But it appears the seventh installment of the Tom Cruise series will struggle to go beyond the core M:I audience.

As of Aug. 7, almost a month after its theatrical debut, its global box office was almost $494 million, with a U.S. box office of $151.2 million, according to Box Office Mojo.

That compares with $791.2 million globally and $220.2 million U.S. for 2018’s Mission: Impossible Fallout and $682.7 million globally and $195 million U.S. for 2015’s Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation.

The newest M:I movie scored a lot of positive reviews and high audience scores, according to the Rotten Tomatoes website.

Expectations had been higher, especially after Cruise’s Tom Gun Maverick in 2022 had a global box office of almost $1.5 billion.

There has been a lot of second-guessing about studio Paramount’s M:I release strategy. The new Mission: Impossible movie didn’t have a lot of time at premium-priced IMAX screens before Barbie and Oppenheimer arrived at theaters.

To be clear, $500 million (that the movie is approaching) is hardly a flop. There is still a market for Tom Cruise Mission: Impossible films. But COVID-related delays sent M:I 7’s budget toward $300 million, more than previous entries. If the movie turns a profit, it likely will be from post-theatrical revenue.

Over the weekend, Variety published an article questioning whether the M:I series needs to reel back its action sequences. Fans objected on social media, citing the release date issues.

Regardless, there isn’t time to recalibrate. M:I 8 is mostly filmed in anticipation of a 2024 release. As usual, we’ll see.

Tom Cruise teases his next Mission: Impossible film

Tom Cruise is ending 2022 with one box office triumph, Top Gun: Maverick. But as the year nears its end, he is hyping his seventh Mission: Impossible film, due out in July 2023.

Cruise and his M:I studio, Paramount, have shown behind-the-scenes footage for the signature stunt of Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One. In that scene (filmed in 2020), Cruise’s Ethan Hunt drives a motorcycle off a cliff.

Of course, that evokes a stunt from 1995’s GoldenEye, near the end of that Bond film’s pre-credits sequence. Except, this time, Cruise himself is doing the stunt. In a video that runs more than nine minutes, Cruise says it’s the most dangerous stunt attempted in a Mission: Impossible film.

Here’s the video:

“I’ve been wanting to do it since I was a little kid,” the 60-year-old Cruise says in the video. “It all comes down to one thing — the audience.” According to the video, Cruise did at least six such jumps.

Toward the end of the video, writer-director Christopher McQuarrie adds this note: “The only thing that scares me is what we have planned for Mission 8.” Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part Two is due out in 2024.

Mission: Impossible 7 (and Bond) questions

The trailer for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is out. For understandable reasons, fans of the James Bond films are interested.

Naturally, the blog has questions.

Is Tom Cruise’s M:I series ripping off Bond? You might not want to throw bricks from inside a glasshouse.

Live And Let Die evoked “Blaxploitation” films of the early 1970s. The Man With the Golden Gun evoked kung fu films from the same period. Moonraker evoked Star Wars and Close Encounters of the Third Kind (even using the same musical notes from John Williams’ score from the latter movie). Moonraker also has similarities to the 1966 movie Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die.

So how would you phrase it?

It depends on how well the ideas are executed.

Movie audiences, generally, don’t care about what ideas are borrowed from whom. They care about whether they like the movie or not.

What makes Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible films different from the most recent Bond movies?

The most recent M:I movies (2011, 2015, 2018) are, for the most part, more fun than the Bond installments of the same period. According to Barbara Broccoli, No Time to Die was a “cinematic masterpiece” (source: No Time to Die official podcast).

No Time to Die enthusiasts would agree. Others may or may not say they had a better time viewing the three M:I films of the 2010s.

That’s all a subject for debate. The seventh M:I film won’t be out for more than a year. We’ll see how it goes.

Mission: Impossible 7 trailer officially released

Paramount released the trailer for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One today after it had leaked out over the weekend.

The trailer for the seventh film in the M:I series starring Tom Cruise contains some homages to James Bond films such as:

–Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt driving a car with its doors knocked off, similar to Daniel Craig’s Bond in Quantum of Solace.

–Cruise/Hunt driving a small yellow car in a chase, similar to Roger Moore’s Bond driving an extremely small car in a chase in For Your Eyes Only.

–A fight on top of a train, with the participants having to duck when approaching tunnels, a la Octopussy.

–Cruise/Hunt riding a motorcycle off a cliff similar to Pierce Brosnan’s Bond in GoldenEye.

The trailer has some striking images, including an Osprey aircraft in flight and a train locomotive going off a cliff.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is scheduled for release next year, with the following installment coming out in 2024. Originally, the two movies were to have been filmed back-to-back. That was before delays related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The trailer is below.

Mission: Impossible 7 trailer leaks

Tom Cruise

A trailer for Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One leaked for a time on social media before being yanked by Paramount.

A version of the trailer for the movie had been shown last month at CinemaCon. An official trailer hasn’t been released. The existence of the leak was reported by The Hollywood Reporter and other outlets.

A website called The Digital Fix quoted David Ellison, a producer on Top Gun: Maverick and the M:I movie, as saying the trailer will “drop next week.”

The video for the seventh Mission: Impossible film starring Tom Cruise that circulated on social media appears to have homages to the James Bond film series. They include scenes that evoke For Your Eyes Only, Octopussy, and GoldenEye.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is scheduled for release on July 14, 2023. The eighth film will be released in 2024.

M:I 7 gets a title as part of CinemaCon preview

Tom Cruise

The delayed Mission: Impossible 7 now has a title, Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One, it was revealed during a preview at CinemaCon.

The reveal was reported by various outlets, including The Hollywood Reporter, Deadline: Hollywood, and Empire. CinemaCon is the convention of the National Association of Theatre Owners. The M:I news was disclosed at a Paramount presentation at the convention.

The seventh and eighth installments of the Tom Cruise M:I film series have been delayed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both movies are directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who also helmed the previous two films in the series.

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One currently has a July 14, 2023 release date, with the next M:I movie coming on June 28, 2024. Cruise, who turns 60 on July 3, both stars in and produces the M:I films.

Cruise’s M:I, like NTTD before it, is in ‘the barrel’

Tom Cruise

Exploding production budgets and release delays stemming (at least in part) to COVID-19. That’s a familiar tale to fans of the cinematic James Bond and No Time to Die.

But, based on a Hollywood Reporter story posted March 24, the scenario is being repeated with Mission: Impossible 7 and 8.

Both projects have been in “the barrel,” something hit by bad luck — bad luck that lasts a long time.

No Time to Die, the 25th Bond film produced by Eon Productions, cost about $300 million to make. The movie incurred five delays, with three because of COVID-19. The other two were because the movie’s original director, Danny Boyle, departed because of “creative differences.”

Originally, Mission: Impossible 7 and 8, starring and produced by Tom Cruise, were to be made back to back.

M:I 7 has been delayed four times, THR noted, with a current release date of July 2023. MI:7 isn’t done yet while work has started on M:I 8, the entertainment news site said.

Here’s an excerpt:

By holding on to the film as a work in progress while working on the eighth, Cruise and his writer-director, Christopher McQuarrie, ensure that Paramount won’t have much luck imposing budget restrictions on what is allegedly the final installment in the franchise. It also gives Cruise — who has creative control — flexibility with respect to the cliffhanger ending of M:I 7.

Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movies have been popular. In the 2010s, there were more M:I installments (2011, 2015, and 2018) than Bond films (2012 and 2015). Some Bond fans point out that some M:I sequences were an homage to Bond. And the M:I films haven’t matched Bond’s global box office.

Regardless, since COVID-19, Cruise’s series has been challenged by the pandemic, as was No Time to Die, finally released in the fall of 2021.

THR reports MI: 7’s budget is at $290 million and counting (in the same territory as No Time to Die).

Another interesting tidbit in The Hollywood Reporter story: Cruise vetoed the idea of Paramount, the studio that releases the M:I movies, coming up with a television spinoff. The idea “was no-go,” THR said.

That sounds similar to how Eon Productions, which makes the Bond film series is resisting Bond spinoffs for streaming television.

Mission: Impossible originated as a TV series made by Desilu in 1966. It became a Paramount property when Lucille Ball sold Desilu to Gulf + Western, then the parent company of Paramount. That transition took place during the 1967-68 season. One week, the end titles had a Desilu logo. The next week, the end titles carried a “Paramount Television” logo.

You can CLICK HERE to read the entire THR story, written by veteran entertainment journalist Kim Masters.

M:I 7 gets pushed back further into 2022

Tom Cruise

Mission: Impossible 7 is being moved further back into 2022 as Paramount opted to delay two Tom Cruise movies.

The studio pushed back Tom Gun: Maverick to Memorial Day weekend 2022, with M:I 7 now slated for Sept. 30 of next year. M:I 7 previously had the Memorial Day date.

The seventh M:I adventure has had its share of delays stemming from COVID-19. The original plan was to have M:I 7 and 8 film back-to-back and then be released in 2021 and 2022. But that idea was abandoned early this year.

Both M:I 7 and 8 are being directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who helped Cruise’s two previous Mission: Impossible movies.

The M:I series in the past decade has drawn attention for its stunts, which have star-producer Cruise as an active participant. Also, M:I had been coming out more frequently (three films from 2011 through 2018) than James Bond movies (two entries in the 2010s) before the COVID-19 pandemic.

COVID-19 had an impact on both. No Time to Die has been delayed three times because of the coronavirus. But those all took place after principal photography was completed. M:I 7 has had delays in the midst of filming. This week, it was announced No Time to Die will proceed with a Sept. 30 release in the U.K. (and other countries) with an Oct. 8 U.S. release.

Exhibitor Relations Co., which tracks box office data, made observations on social media.

Moving day.

JACKASS FOREVER (2/4/22)
TOP GUN: MAVERICK (5/27/22)
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 (9/30/22)

And with that, Paramount's gates are shuttered for 2021, as PAW PATROL is their last drop of the year. See you in '22! Maybe. Unless they sell. Send offers directly to Tom Cruise.

— Exhibitor Relations Co. (@ERCboxoffice) September 1, 2021

With TOP GUN: MAVERICK's move to Memorial Day weekend 2022, MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 7 will now discharge Sept 30, 2022.

Tom Cruise x2 in 2022.

— Exhibitor Relations Co. (@ERCboxoffice) September 1, 2021

The move also means M:I 7 won’t be out until the seemingly ageless Cruise turns 60 on July 3, 2022.

Douglas Cramer, controversial M:I figure, dies

Dougas S. Cramere title card on a third-season episode of Mission: Impossible.

Douglas S. Cramer, a successful TV executive and producer, has died at 89, according to The Wrap. His credits include the likes of the likes of The Love Boat, the Lynda Carter Wonder Woman series and Vega$. But he was also a controversial figure with the original Mission: Impossible television series.

Background: Mission: Impossible originated with writer-producer Bruce Geller who had landed at Desilu. During M:I’s second season, Lucille Ball sold Desilu to the parent company of Paramount. Suddenly, Desilu became Paramount Television.

In M:I’s third season, Geller was now dealing with Douglas S. Cramer, who more cost-conscious that previous management.

Among many Mission: Impossible fans, Cramer is seen as a villain. It was under his tenure that Martin Landau and Barbara Bain departed the show. Landau had never signed a long-term series deal and negotiated his salary a season as a time.

It was during the Cramer regime at Paramount that Landau’s bargaining power ran out. Bain, his wife at the time, went with him out the door.

The 1991 book The Complete Mission: Impossible Dossier by Patrick J. White included interviews with Cramer.

“Bruce had a wonderful concept of the show, put it together beautifully, but paid no attention to budget,” Cramer told the author. “Secondly, he traditionally wrote bigger shows than we could afford to do….Bruce was a madman about scripts and there would be layer after layer of writers working on them.”

There were other Mission: Impossible conflicts. Bruce Geller, as executive producer, clashed with writer-producers William Read Woodfield and Allan Balter during the third season. The Woodfield-Balter team, who had authored many of the best episodes, left.

Still, the big conflict was the one with Geller and Cramer. The latter described his perspective to author White.

“Bruce and his refusal to pay any attention to budget had permeated all the people that worked for him,” Cramer said. In the book, Cramer referred to Geller as a “mad dictator.”

For many Mission: Impossible fans, Cramer was in the wrong and Geller was proven correct in the end. M:I ran seven seasons, the longest run of the 1960s spy craze and spawned a successful series of Tom Cruise movies.

Regardless, Cramer’s story is a reminder that making a television series it never easy. It’s always a balance of art and commerce.

More movie release delays spur concerns about NTTD

Movie release dates continue to get reset, which raises the question whether No Time to Die will meet its current release range of Sept. 30-Oct. 8.

The latest: According to Variety, Paramount has moved back Top Gun: Maverick to Nov. 19 from July 2. Mission: Impossible 7 has been delayed to May 27, 2022, from Nov. 19 of this year.

Previously, Walt Disney Co. announced that Black Widow was pushed back to July from early May. Black Widow, made by the company’s Marvel Studios’ unit, will be available on the Disney + streaming service for an extra charge of almost $30 while also opening in theaters.

Last week, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Bond’s home studio, had an investor call but said almost nothing about No Time To Die. MGM simply listed the 25th James Bond film — the company’s most expensive movie of the past two years — as one of many films in MGM’s schedule.

The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc with movie release dates for more than a year. Vaccines are now available. But COVID cases are accelerating yet again because of new versions of the virus.