Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One off to a rough but promising start with $56M weekend
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Hollywood was quick to crown Tom Cruise savior of the box office with last year's billion-dollar blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick, but even saviors have off weekends.
Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning, Part One, the seventh film in the 27-year-old franchise, was expected to open with at least $60 million for potentially the biggest debut of any M:I film. Instead, M:I 7 had the second biggest debut among the franchise, $56.2 million over the weekend, as per Comscore, just short of 2018's Mission: Impossible — Fallout's $61 million.
Paramount Pictures and Skydance Hayley Atwell and Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One'
But all hope is not lost. For one, Dead Reckoning, Part One opened on Wednesday and scored $80 million over its first five days, outpacing Fallout and every other M:I film. And globally, the action-packed sequel opened with an impressive $235 million, the biggest opening of the franchise.
Also, Dead Reckoning, Part One is expected to have a long and solid run, based off strong reviews and audience reactions, which will likely lead to positive word of mouth that should extend its life at the box office.
In comparison, Harrison Ford's final outing as Indiana Jones in The Dial of Destiny may be relegated to "bomb" status with its comparatively low scores from critics and audiences alike, as well as a harrowing $300 million budget. In its third week, the fifth film in the Indy franchise dropped to fourth place, grossing $12 million domestically, bringing its total here to $145.4 million. Globally, The Dial of Destiny is sitting at about $302.4 million.
The weekend's second highest grossing film, Sound of Freedom, likely benefited from some conspiracy-led controversy. Based on the true story of Tim Ballard (played by Passion of the Christ actor Jim Caviezel), the fulm follows a former federal agent who embarks on a mission to rescue children from sex trafficking in Colombia.
Sound of Freedom has been slammed as a "QAnon-tinged thriller" and gateway to "far-right conspiracy theories," among other criticisms, since its July 4 theatrical release. Several right-wing social media users have gone viral as of late by claiming AMC has sought to sabotage screenings by evacuating theaters, making the audio inaudible, or shutting off the air conditioning.
AMC Theaters and the film's distributor Angel Studios denied the conspiracy connections, but the film still managed to turn in 37% more in box office receipts from last weekend for $27 million domestically. Its domestic cume so far is $85.5 million.
Last week's No. 1 movie, Insidious: The Red Door, another franchise film, dropped to third in its second week of release, earning $13 million. The fifth installment of the Insidious series and star Patrick Wilson's directorial debut has so far grossed $58.1 million domestically, $122.6 million globally.
Pixar's Elemental rounds out the top 5 at the weekend box office with $8.7 million, bringing its five-week cume to $125.3 million domestically, $311.7 million globally.
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