Critics are loving Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 so much that it just made franchise history on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mission: Impossible is regarded by many as one of the best long-running action franchises in Hollywood, and the seventh and latest movie, Dead Reckoning Part 1 appears to be no exception after receiving strong reactions from critics.
Ethan Hunt's latest adventure packs a stellar cast headed up by Tom Cruise, with him being joined by Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, and more familiar faces, along with newcomers Pom Klementieff and Hayley Atwell.
Mission: Impossible Makes Rotten Tomatoes History
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 has officially been Certified Fresh by Rotten Tomatoes with an overwhelmingly positive score of 98% based on reviews from 87 critics who had the chance to see the Tom Cruise sequel ahead of release.
For a major movie to be Certified Fresh, Rotten Tomatoes requires at least 80 reviews, including five from top critics, and a consistent Tomatometer score of over 75% - which refers to the percentage of critics who gave a positive review.
The score comes as a historic one for the franchise, with the 98% awarded to Dead Reckoning Part 1 beating out the 96% of Fallout, the last installment in the series, for the highest Tomatometer score a Mission: Impossible movie has been Certified Fresh with.
After its latest movie received a historic score of 98%, Mission: Impossible became the only live-action franchise to have four movies in a row with Tomatometer scores over 90%:
- Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol - 93%
- Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation - 94%
- Mission: Impossible - Fallout - 97%
- Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One - 98%
The original Mission: Impossible trilogy didn't fair as well on the Tomatometer front, with its movies ranging from a Rotten 56% to a Fresh 71%:
- Mission: Impossible - 67%
- Mission: Impossible 2 - 56%
- Mission: Impossible 3 - 71%
Other movie franchises have come close to the mark of having four back-to-back movies over 90%, such as The Lord of the Rings which maintained its streak through the whole trilogy, but was broken by The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey:
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring - 91%
- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers - 95%
- The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King - 93%
- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 64%
The MCU was also on a hot streak for a while from Spider-Man: Homecoming to Black Panther, but Avengers: Infinity War fell just short of the mark:
- Spider-Man: Homecoming - 92%
- Thor: Ragnarok - 93%
- Black Panther - 96%
- Avengers: Infinity War - 85%
Although the first four Harry Potter movies only had one cross over 90%, all maintained consistently high scores over 80%:
- Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - 81%
- Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets - 82%
- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - 90%
- Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire - 88%
Mission: Impossible 7 Set for Box Office Success
Mission: Impossible has built a reputation since Ghost Protocol as one of the greatest and most consistent action franchises going, and that appears likely to remain perfectly intact going into its biggest entry yet.
In an age where word of mouth has a bigger impact than ever on week-to-week box office results, Mission: Impossible 7 is set up to be yet another massive hit after Fallout brought in a franchise-high $786.6 million haul.
Last summer, Tom Cruise was a hot commodity at the box office after Top Gun: Maverick grossed almost $1.5 billion. Only two movies in the series have entered the billion-dollar club since then, could Dead Reckoning Part 1 be next?
Well if one thing's for sure, anticipation is bound to be high for next summer's Dead Reckoning Part 2, with the franchise's latest movie theorized by many to end on a massive cliffhanger due to the two-part format.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 hits theaters on Wednesday, July 12.
