In the North American film market last week, the only new film was Paramount's "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" starring Tom Cruise. The release of the film also marks the arrival of the climax of the summer file in 2023.
"Mission: Impossible 7" was screened in 4,327 North American theaters. Because it was released on Wednesday, the cumulative box office of the five-day opening reached 80 million U.S. dollars, which was better than the industry's expected 70 million U.S. dollars. However, if the three-day weekend box office is counted alone, it is 56.2 million US dollars. Compared with the US$61 million weekend three-day box office of "Mission: Impossible 6" released in 2018, this result is still a bit of a step back. It seems to show that even the omnipotent agent Ethan, even last year with "Top Gun 2 "Successfully saved Tom Cruise at the North American box office. American audiences are somewhat fatigued in the face of such a series of works that change the soup without changing the medicine.
Previously, when promoting the film, Cruise said with a smile that he was willing to play this role until he was 80 years old and continue the "Mission: Impossible" series for another 20 years. Judging from the box office development of the film alone, it is difficult to say whether it is true. There is also this need.
"Mission: Impossible 7" poster
Of course, this is not to say that the current box office performance of "Mission: Impossible 7" has a big problem. Relying on strong media evaluation (currently has an astonishing 96% freshness on the film review website "Rotten Tomatoes") and audience reputation, Even if this weekend will face the double challenge from "Oppenheimer" and "Barbie", I believe that the follow-up box office of "Mission: Impossible 7" will still have a lot of room for growth in the future.
But on the one hand, due to the epidemic and other factors, "Mission Impossible 7", like many Hollywood blockbusters released this year, has the inherent disadvantage of extremely high production costs (Paramount has not announced the specific production costs so far, and some media said Nearly 300 million U.S. dollars), and including the publicity and distribution costs, I am afraid that it will take at least 600 million to 750 million U.S. dollars in the global box office to ensure that it does not lose money. At present, its first-week box office outside of North America is 155 million US dollars (including 184 million yuan in mainland China), and its global box office has reached 235 million US dollars.
On the other hand, in today's North American film market, the role of relatively expensive IMAX and other special theaters has become more and more important. Looking at the data alone, the recovery of the North American box office after the epidemic is not ideal, and it is far from returning to the level of 2019. However, the market share of IMAX has increased by as much as 50% compared to 2019. Of course, this is probably also in line with the new normal of movie watching that is becoming more and more common in the United States: reduce the number of movie viewings, spend as much money as possible, and only watch excellent works that must be in theaters to enjoy the audiovisual effects. That being the case, everyone will simply choose the IMAX hall with the best sound and picture effects, which is worthwhile. Therefore, competition for resources in the IMAX theater has become a homework that producers of commercial blockbusters must do.
According to US media reports, Tom Cruise has personally called IMAX executives long ago, hoping that more than 400 IMAX screens across North America will be reserved for "Mission: Impossible 7" for a longer period of time instead of in "Olympiad". After "Benheimer" was released on July 21, it was all allocated to the latter, but IMAX finally rejected Cruise's request.
In fact, the schedule of "Mission: Impossible 7" has undergone some adjustments, while "Oppenheimer" has already planted its flag in late July, and the producer Universal Pictures has already finalized an agreement to monopolize the IMAX screen for three full weeks— —The film was shot with IMAX cameras. According to the agreement, there was originally a two-week exclusive period for IMAX screens, but it is a bit rare to have an extra week.
"Oppenheimer" poster
In an interview with the media, IMAX CEO Rich Gelfond (Rich Gelfond) also expressed his regret that he could not take into account the two super blockbusters "Mission: Impossible 7" and "Oppenheimer" at the same time. After the three-week schedule of "Oppenheimer" is over, "Mission: Impossible 7" can be rescheduled to enter the IMAX hall.
As for the lore, Cruise used last year's "Top Gun 2" as an example--the film grossed more than $100 million in North American IMAX theaters alone-in the hope of convincing IMAX that only "Top Gun 2" can be shown. "Mission: Impossible 7" can ensure the maximization of IMAX's own interests. In this regard, the CEO also responded: "I'm sorry, but in IMAX's heart, Mr. Nolan has a special status, because he uses our IMAX camera for his filming, and he is our important promoter, so this issue is not the same. It just depends on who can help us earn more box office."
