Originally published June 2, 2023. Updated June 3, 2023.
When your upcoming film costs a reported $300 million, you’d want to have a chance to have it seen on the biggest (and most expensive) screens.
That’s the dilemma actor/producer Tom Cruise faces now since reports claim Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One will only see a premium theater run for one week. At the same time, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer reportedly stays on the biggest screens for three whole weeks.
In what many have labeled as the first competitive summer blockbuster season since COVID, the two cinematic juggernauts will go head-to-head along with Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. With all this competition, Cruise wants his seventh Mission: Impossible film to have a fair chance at making significant money.
Sources close to the situation say Cruise is holding nothing back, “complaining loudly to Paramount executives and others about the IMAX situation.” Reports say the Top Gun: Maverick actor has expressed “extreme displeasure that the distribution waters aren’t being parted for the guy who saved theaters.”
As for Nolan, the situation seems to favor him. Many have joked that Christopher Nolan is basically a brand ambassador for IMAX, almost pushing for it in his films, and he even shot Oppenheimer entirely with the IMAX large-format cameras. He was also given his usual late July release date, well before Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One saw four release date delays.
The box office for this summer is already crowded, with June and July having an absurd amount of big-time movie releases. We are even seeing other blockbusters struggle with the less-than-crowded May slate, as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is performing well but won’t match its global haul for the last entry. Some say that the James Gunn Marvel movie could end up the lowest-grossing of Marvel’s early summer releases since 2014 – which could be why Cruise is so worried about his crowded release date.
At the time of writing, any early plan is for Cruise and Paramount to get Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One back into IMAX after Oppenheimer finishes its exclusive run. This could work for a few weeks until Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem drops and will likely eat up some premium screens from Cruise’s latest.
According to the entertainment outlet Puck, “Cruise’s rep, Amanda Lundberg, and Paramount both declined to comment.”
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One is set for release on July 12th, while Oppenheimer opens on July 21st.
