Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One is off to the races at the domestic box office.
The Paramount and Skydance tentpole starring Tom Cruise earned $15.5 million on Wednesday, including a franchise-best $7 million in Tuesday evening previews. That puts the movie on course to post a five-day opening of $90 million-plus, which would also be a series best.
Dead Reckoning is opening midweek in order to get a jump on the competition. The tentpole, which earned an A CinemaScore from audiences, isdirected by Christopher McQuarrie. The cast also includes Hayley Atwell, Vanessa Kirby, Henry Czerny, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames and Simon Pegg.
Cruise is a favorite of theater owners. He resisted putting 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick on streaming, and it ended up being the top-grossing domestic feature released in 2022 with $774.7 million domestic, for a total of $1.49 billion globally.
The actor has become a moviegoing ambassador of sorts. In recent days, he urged his fans to support all summer films, including Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, both of which open in cinemas July 21.
The new Mission: Impossible movie dealt with multiple setbacks caused by COVID-19. Filming shut down at least five times due to the pandemic, with Cruise and writer-director Christopher McQuarrie ultimately contracting the disease, and audio of Cruise insisting that the crew abide by COVID restrictions went viral.
Earlier this week, Cruise told The Hollywood Reporter how “amazing” it was to get through those challenges and open the tentpole on the big screen. “We talked about it. We dreamed about it. It’s very, very special,” Cruise said at the movie’s New York City premiere. “On Top Gun: Maverick, they kept pushing the movie and pushing the movie, and for [McQuarrie] and I, this is such an ambitious movie. And it was a very challenging film to produce, and then everything happened, and it was even more challenging. So to have this response … is very, very special.”
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