I don’t know what is the exact the reason for all of these underperforming summer blockbusters at the multiplex, but I certainly wasn’t expecting “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” to be part of that group.
Maybe it’s too early to make a judgement, Friday numbers will tell a more concise story, but the early numbers tell us that ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ will not meet the $90 million opening that was being projected. The latest numbers look something like this:
Tuesday — $8.6 million
Wednesday — $8.5 million
Thursday — $8.2 million
And we thought the success of this past spring’s “Super Mario Bros Movie” meant that, post-pandemic, audiences were going back to theaters, in droves. They’re not.
Not even glowing reviews were enough to push ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ forward, ditto Tom Cruise’s name stamped all over its marketing. To make matters worse, a lot of its screens will be swallowed up by Barbenheimer next weekend.
The sad truth is that the industry has shapeshifted to the point of no return, it doesn’t help that the token moviegoer is seeing these high-paying actors asking for more money by going on strike, although, yes, it’s a much more nuanced story than it looks.
Twenty years ago, with much lower ticket prices, you had ‘Transformers’ and ‘Harry Potter’ easily crossing $150M-$200M over a 5-day weekend. In 2023, far less people are going to movie theaters.
It turns out the biggest success story of the summer has been the conservative-backed “Sound of Freedom,” which is still making a killing. It’s so far made $52 million on a budget that is said to be around $13 million. It’s supposed to gross another $20+ million this weekend.