Tom Cruise’s real “Mission Impossible”: save his million-dollar investment from the “Barbenheimer” phenomenon

2023-08-05 20:24:23

Tom Cruise broke the box office last year 2022 with the tremendous success achieved by the long-awaited sequel to his classic “Top Gun”. This 2023, the actor and producer from Syracuse was looking for a similar success with the new installment of “Mission Impossible”, which in fact constitutes the penultimate feature film in the saga starring agent Ethan Hunt.

on paper, Nobody doubted the success of the seventh chapter of “Mission Impossible”. Taking the premiere to the summer months seemed like a smart bet. The industry knows that, in the hot months, attendance at the theaters is less, so that the films released on these dates are usually projects of lesser importance. By positioning a big release like “Mission Impossible” in July, the distributor seemed to become the big summer attraction.

The bet had already worked like a charm in 2018, when the previous installment of the film was released in the seventh month of the year. The figures for the premiere were magnificent: with a budget of 178 million dollars, the collection obtained shot up to 792 million. However, the formula has not worked in the same way in 2023 due to the unexpected “Barbenheimer” phenomenon.

By now, no reader will be surprised to learn of the box office pull of “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The feature film based on the Mattel doll cost $145 million, but has grossed more than $810 million to date. The key to the success of the feature film has been an original marketing and advertising campaign that has added another 150 million to the budget of the film, but it has triggered the expectation for the film. Warner Bros. expected to make $75 million at the box office in the opening weekend of “Barbie” screenings, but the final figure turned out to be more than $160 million.

Similarly, the biopic by the American physicist Julius Robert Oppenheimer has achieved audience figures that double market forecasts. So, Although a strong premiere was anticipated, around 40 million dollars in billing, first-week sales shot up to 80 million. Since then, the box office for “Oppenheimer” has grown to over 400 million.

The very strong competition induced by both releases has limited the success of Tom Cruise’s feature film. In any case, “Mission Impossible” accumulates a collection of more than 450 million dollars, with 142 million sales in theaters in the United States and 309 million in theaters in other countries. Spain contributes 4 million to this figure.

Although these data are not bad, but they lose shine compared to a budget of 290 million. Also, it’s important to remember that Cruise’s original idea was to cap the production cost of the feature film at $210 million. This all changed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, which caused the project’s expenses to skyrocket.

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So the million-dollar investment undertaken by Paramount to finance the penultimate installment of the Ethan Hunt spy saga has not turned out as profitable as expected. The public figures are correct, especially given the intense competition that the unexpected “blockbusters” “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” have brought, but the high budget of the feature film has meant that the investment is not as profitable as everyone expected.

This summer is full of amazing movies to see in theaters.

Congratulations, Harrison Ford, on 40 years of Indy and one of the most iconic characters in history.

I love a double feature, and it doesn’t get more explosive (or more pink) than one with Oppenheimer and Barbie. pic.twitter.com/udWHHj4fAe

— Tom Cruise (@TomCruise) June 28, 2023

The actor himself has shared a message on Twitter in which he boasts of attending the premieres of the competition, showing his tickets to see “Barbie”, “Oppenheimer” and the latest installment of “Indiana Jones”. The fifth installment of the saga starring Harrison Ford has fared worse: with a budget of almost 300 million, it generated just over 350 million at the box office. Of course: its premiere took place several weeks before the phenomenon “Barbenheimer” and the first screening of “Mission Impossible”.