Ahead of Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One's theatrical run, star Tom Cruise is said to be "pissed" with its place in the big screen hierarchy.
Cruise is currently prepping for Mission Impossible 7’s arrival in theaters, which will serve as the first part of a two-piece ending to the franchise he’s led for the past 27 years.
And after the immense success he saw critically and financially with last year’s mega-hit Top Gun: Maverick, expectations for him to succeed with this new movie continue to grow as his star power remains steady.
Tom Cruise Unhappy With Mission Impossible 7's Theater Placement
According to Puck News analyst Matthew Belloni's most recent "What I'm Hearing" newsletter, Tom Cruise is quite upset with where Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is falling in the theatrical pecking order.
The report notes that Paramount's Mission: Impossible 7 is booked to play on the majority of North American IMAX screens when it premieres on July 12. However, just nine days later, Universal's upcoming Christopher Nolan-directed epic Oppenheimer will debut in theaters and is reportedly locked in to play on all IMAX screens for three full weeks until mid-August, a move which severely limits MI7's theater capacity starting in its second weekend.
According to Belloni, Cruise is "pretty pissed [off]" about the situation and is adamantly attempting to convince exhibitors (in some cases, personally calling them directly) to change their plans to screen his film ahead of Oppenheimer on certain non-IMAX premium screens.
Nolan is well known for his support of IMAX, having shot Oppenheimer exclusively with IMAX large-format cameras, and Universal slotted the movie for this release date in 2021 long before Mission Impossible 7 got its date in early 2022.
Cruise's contention comes from the feeling that he isn't getting the treatment he feels he deserves after his work on Top Gun: Maverick. Maverick was said to have saved theaters when it debuted in May 2022, eventually grossing $1.5 billion at the box office. Of that box office total, $110 million of it came from IMAX theaters. Ultimately, Cruise is said to be expressing "extreme displeasure" in IMAX's decision not to budge on the plan for his next Mission: Impossible movie versus Nolan's Oppenheimer.
Will Tom Cruise's Intensity Benefit Mission Impossible 7?
Tom Cruise is known as one of the most intense and passionate performers in the modern era of film, as seen by his insistence to perform so much difficult material on screen as well as his history with his movies' releases - see the Top Gun: Maverick theatrical saga.
But the real question now is if speaking up about Mission Impossible 7's time on IMAX screens will help the sequel in the long run at the box office.
The last three Mission Impossible movies all grossed between $688 million and $787 million at the box office, with no film in the franchise crossing the $800 million marker over the past quarter-century.
And with stiff competition in the weeks surrounding its release from Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (June 30), Barbie (June 21), and Oppenheimer (June 21), it will have a tough time keeping fans coming back to the big screen as more new movies debut.
Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One will arrive in theaters on July 12.
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