Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One grossed $8.3 million at the box office on Thursday, taking the action sequel’s North American gross to $23.8 million after two days of release.
The film, in which Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt falls off cliffs, battles knife-wielding villains on trains and dodges pursuers while cruising the streets of Rome in a Fiat, was incredibly expensive to produce. The film was shot during the pandemic (with all the attendant closures, delays and health protocols that have been a part of the COVID era), and the film’s budget grew to $290 million. For “Mission: Impossible” to be profitable, it needs to generate a lot of repeat business and boom at the worldwide box office.
The film is currently expected to gross around $80 million in its first five days in cinemas, which is slightly below expectations. Originally, follow-up suggested the film would gross about $90 million from ticket sales. However, the Mission: Impossible films tend to attract older audiences who don’t always turn up for opening weekend. That could give the film impressive staying power, even if its debut turns out to be softer than expected.
Cruise’s last impossible mission, 2018’s Fallout, grossed $61 million on its debut, setting a franchise record. However, this film didn’t have a five-day release time, making comparisons difficult.
Christopher McQuarrie returned to direct Dead Reckoning after overseeing the previous two parts. Here, Hunt and his crew battle a much creepier version of ChatGPT in an almighty artificial intelligence force known as The Entity. Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, Vanessa Kirby and Pom Klementieff complete the cast.
