‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’ Sets Franchise 5-Day U.S. Opening Record With $80M – Sunday AM Update

SUNDAY AM WRITETHRU — after Saturday PM update…Facts are facts, and Paramount/Skydance’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One set a 5-day opening domestic record for the franchise with $80M. Paramount is calling the global opening here at $235M, read Nancy’s report here. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny only opened to $130M.

Asserted Paramount Domestic Distribution President Chris Aronson this morning, “Mission is a global story, has always been a global story, and will continue to be a global story.”

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Previous best 5-day opening belonged to 2000’s Mission: Impossible II, which cleared a Wednesday-Sunday take over Memorial Day weekend of $78.8M. The 3-day record still belongs to 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout which posted $61.2M. Dead Reckoning is seeing a 3-day of $56.2M at 4,327 theaters, including Imax and PLF auditoriums. Dead Reckoning reps Oscar- winning filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie’s third time directing a Mission movie after 2015’s Rogue Nation and Fallout. Technically, he has four Mission movies under his belt, as he’s also directing Dead Reckoning Part Two. That movie had to pause recently because of the SAG-AFTRA strike.

As we already told you, even though Dead Reckoning‘s 5-day is in the vicinity of older-leaning Disney/Lucasfilm finale Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Friday-Tuesday of $83.8M), a film we declared as a complete box office upset in regards to its $300M production cost, which is the same as Dead Reckoning), this Mission: Impossible sequel is a different beast, as it has great reviews (96% certified fresh) and excellent audience scores, with an A CinemaScore and 5 Stars Posttrak, enough fire to keep this fuse lit around the world, especially overseas. Dial of Destiny doesn’t have that momentum, and you can clearly see that in the global opening here for Dead Reckoning. More to the point: Dial of Destiny‘s global running total stands at $302M through three weeks, and the Cruise sequel in its first five days is just $67M shy of that.

In regards to U.S./Canada admissions, Dead Reckoning, per EntTelligence, clocked 5.6M patrons to Dial of Destiny‘s 6.4M opening 5-day. That patron divide, per the analytics firm, boils down to more moviegoers seeing Indy in standard format rather than premium.

On a like-for-like basis including previews, the International Box office, excluding China, is $129.6M, which is 15% ahead of Mission: Impossible Fallout, making it the biggest opening for the franchise. China is $25.4M, which is 66% below Mission: Impossible Fallout ($74M opening weekend). Pin that to the country turning its back on Hollywood fare post-pandemic.

Proof that good word-of-mouth is working for Dead Reckoning: Remember how we were scared that the sequel wouldn’t deliver greatly with a $15.5M opening day (plus previews)? How rivals estimated the sequel at a $70M 5-day? Well, here’s Dead Reckoning coming in much higher.

Saturday was $21.4M, repping a 28% spike over Friday’s $16.7M. Sunday is figured at a -15% ease with $18.1M. Despite that wild $90M projection, Dead Reckoning wound up performing just like a Tom Cruise Mission movie would.

While the Dead Reckoning campaign kicked off in May 2022 with teaser trailer on Top Gun: Maverick, and another behind-the-scenes featurette about Cruise’s biggest stunt in the film, the Norway Ramp Jump (in Imax tagged onto Avatar: The Way of Water), exhibitors actually got to see the latter as early as August 2021 at the first return-to-in-person CinemaCon during Covid.

The second trailer debuted in May with a spot in the NBA Playoffs, and synergistically across Paramount Global channels. Five additional featurettes showcased the stunts and scope of the film, including the Rome car chase, Cruise’s speed flying and train stunts, and McQuarrie’s filmmaking in Venice and Abu Dhabi.

Paramount held the Dead Reckoning at the Spanish Steps in Rome, which stars in the film; the first time a global movie premiere took place there. Cruise then went on to tour the film in London, Abu Dhabi, Seoul, Sydney, and New York, with Japan set to come later this month. Cruise and McQuarrie also showed up with the film for fans in Toronto, Washington D.C., Atlanta, and Miami.

Promo partners on Dead Reckoning included Fiat, which created a bespoke TV campaign which featured the Rome car chase sequence in the film while showcasing the new Fiat Abarth electric car.

Etihad’s global campaign included a Mission: Impossible-branded plane with routes between Abu Dhabi and key destinations around the world. Etihad also had paid marketing support, with a behind-the-scenes content piece highlighting Abu Dhabi, an action-packed 30-second ad campaign, a targeted online stunt with Man City football club, and a skydive stunt with an orchestra playing the franchise theme song.

Reportedly, Dead Reckoning garnered the largest Paramount synergy support ever for a theatrical release, with a 30-minute behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie on CBS. The special included additional placement on Paramount+, MTV, Paramount Network, CBS affiliates, and Channel 10 in Australia. Support included a primetime roadblock to support the trailer, and a full Mission week on CBS Mornings including interviews with the cast in addition to trailer and premiere coverage. The newly acquired podcast, “Light the Fuse—The Official Mission: Impossible Podcast,” hosted a live podcast taping with cast and filmmakers.

The digital marketing for the sequel included a Twitter “Join the Mission” and Chatbot activation. Khaby Lame, a notable TikToker with a reach of over 240M, created custom Mission: Impossible content for TikTok and Instagram. Paramount launched a TikTok account focused on Tom Cruise’s greatest stunts. TikTok entered a first-of-its-kind global creator partnership for the pic which included localized content pages and creator collaborations using talent from around the world at each of the global premieres, a branded mission, live event with talent, and push notifications to its 1 billion monthly users.

Outdoor placement for the sequel included stunt barricades, train wraps, and murals. An aerial fly-over program launched in 10 markets for Fourth of July weekend, prompting fans to text to win a hometown screening.

TV spots aired on such global sporting events as the UEFA Champions League, CONCACAF Gold Cup, MotoGP, F1 Silverstone, and the NBA Finals.

In regards to foot traffic for Dead Reckoning, per EntTelligence, 18% of moviegoers watched the pic before 1PM, 33% during hard matinees of 1PM to 5PM, 32% between 5PM to 8PM and 17% late night after 8PM.

PLFs and Imax drove 42% of the weekend’s gross. Imax is reporting a $25M global opening, making it the biggest start for the franchise for their large format, and also the 2nd-highest global opening for Imax this year to date, and the third-highest global opening ever for Paramount in Imax. Domestic, Imax screens for Dead Reckoning racked up $11M, repping 14% of the 5-day take. It’s also the biggest domestic opening for Mission series in Imax.

“The shift to IMAX in moviegoing has never been more apparent than this summer, with ‘Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One’ just the latest in a long line of global releases in which we delivered an outsized share of box office,” said Rich Gelfond, CEO of Imax in a statement. “The fact that this franchise has scored its biggest opening ever with its seventh installment is a stunning testament to the timeless allure of Tom Cruise and his peerless brand of blockbuster filmmaking.”

Also faring extremely well here is Angels Studios’ anti-child trafficking thriller Sound of Freedom, which the distrib is calling at a $27M second weekend in second place, up a hu-mungo 37% (when does that ever happen?) for a running total of north of $85M at 3,265 theaters. This Jim Caviezel movie is going well north of $100M in the next week.

On the specialty side, Sony Pictures Classics had The Miracle Club starring Laura Linney, Kathy Bates, and Maggie Smith. The 68% fresh Rotten Tomatoes reviewed movie posted $680K from 678 theaters for a $1k theater average.

Searchlight opened their $8M Sundance pick-up, Theater Camp, from filmmakers Molly Gordon and Nick Lieberman. The Erik Feig produced feature is posting an estimated $270K opening from 6 theaters or a $45K theater average. That’s the fourth best opening theater average for 2023 after Asteroid City ($142K), Beau Is Afraid ($80K) and Past Lives ($58K), and a great sign indie moviegoing is coming back. The comedy is 80% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Theater Camp was happening at AMC LSQ, Alamo Brooklyn, Angelika, AMC Grove, AMC Burbank & AMC Century City in NYC and LA. Solid numbers with Q&As in the NYC bookings. AMC Lincoln Square was big with $30K on Friday.

Next week, it’s a brawl between Barbie and Oppenheimer, an overall frame that some are predicting hits $200M for all movies.

The chart…

1.) Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Par) 4,327 theaters, Fri $16.7M, Sat $21.4M Sun $18.1M 3-day $56.2M, 5-day $80M/Wk 1

2.) Sound of Freedom (Angel) 3,265 (+413) theaters, Fri $7.4M, Sat $10.2M Sun $9.2M 3-day $27M (+37%), Total $85.4M/Wk 2

3.) Insidous: The Red Door (Sony/Blum) 3,188 theaters Fri $4.15M Sat $5M Sun $3.78M 3-day $13M (-60%)/Total $58M/Wk 2

4.)Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (Dis) 3,865 (-735) theaters, Fri $3.3M Sat $4.9M Sun $3.8M 3-day $12M (-56%)/Total $145.3M/Wk 3

5.) Elemental (Dis) 3,235 (-205) theaters, Fri $2.6M Sat $3.5M Sun $2.6M 3-day $8.7M (-13%), Total $125.2M/Wk 5

6.) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (Sony) 2,577 (-446) theaters, Fri $1.72M Sat $2.3M Sun $1.95M 3-day $6.05M (-25%) Total $368.7M /Wk 7

7.) Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (Par) 2,041 (-434) theaters, Fri $940K Sat $1.38M Sun $1.1M 3-day $3.42M (-33%) Total $152.7M/Wk 6

8.) No Hard Feelings (Sony) 2,053 (-633) theaters, Fri $1M Sat $1.3M Sun $960K 3-day $3.3M (-39%), Total $46.5M /Wk 4

9.) Joy Ride (LG) 2,820 theaters, Fri $771K Sat $1M Sun $751K 3-day $2.57M (-56%)/Total $10.6M/Wk 2

10.) The Little Mermaid (Dis) 1,615 (-465) theaters, Fri $675K Sat $950K Sun $725K 3-day $2.35M (-36%) Total $293.9M/ Wk 8

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