As Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible 8 Is Ready To Bring Back The Lost Glory Of The Franchise, Let’s Find Out What Went Wrong With 7th Installment That Led To Loss Of Millions At The Box Office
Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible 7 was a disappointing affair at the worldwide box office & now, part 8 is pushed to 2025. Read on!
As We Look Forward To Tom Cruise Starrer Mission: Impossible 8’s Release, Here Are The Reasons Why 7th Installment Failed At The Box Office (Photo Credit – Instagram)
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At the age of 61, Tom Cruise is hands down the biggest action star in the world. After carving his space with his daredevil stunts over the years, the actor is still as passionate as ever and loves giving his sweat and blood to stun us on the big screen. One such experience was his Mission: Impossible 7, which was sadly titled Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. It had the potential to explode at the box office but ended up being a disappointment. Today, we discuss the reasons responsible for it.
Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, Dead Reckoning also featured Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Esai Morales, and others in key roles. The film had been in the news ever since the announcement, and it was quite obvious as Tom is well known across the globe for his MI franchise, which is highly popular for its cult action sequences.
As Tom Cruise was coming fresh from the blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick, expectations were sky-high from Mission: Impossible 7. With the franchise factor coming into play, MI 7 was always touted to be a front-loaded affair, and with critical acclaim coming in from all around, the film had everything working perfectly in its favor. So, why did it become a loss venture at the worldwide box office? Let’s decode it below!
One of the biggest reasons behind the failure of Tom Cruise’s ambitious project was that it went over budget. Mission: Impossible 7 was supposed to go on floors by early 2020, but due to COVID-19 and some other reasons, several delays were witnessed. During the period of pandemic, the filming even came to a complete halt. Such hurdles during the shoot made it a very expensive affair, and eventually, the budget went up to $290 million, as per reports.
Due to such a huge cost, the breakeven went well above $600 million. Some reports even suggest it had a breakeven of $750-$800 million. However, at the worldwide box office, the biggie made just $567.53 million. This looks to be a fair number, but if one takes into consideration the breakeven, it’s a disappointing total.
Lack of aggressive marketing
Mission: Impossible 7 had the goodwill of the previous installments, but it wasn’t marketed well weeks before its release. With such a big film in hand, one needs to create a good awareness among the audience. Here, the makers missed an opportunity as they didn’t try anything new to attract the attention of the new audience, who isn’t very aware of the MI franchise.
Longer runtime
Length has always been a problem with big-screen action entertainers, and the mistake was repeated with Mission: Impossible 7. The duration of this Tom Cruise starrer was 2 hours and 43 minutes, which is a bit longer for an action thriller. No doubt, the film offered good content, but a crisper length could have benefitted it in gaining a repeat audience.
The phenomena of Barbenheimer denting the business
Barbenheimer was the biggest reason why Mission: Impossible 7 didn’t perform as per everyone’s expectations. Both Barbie and Oppenheimer arrived within 9 days of the film’s release. Both biggies had their targeted audience, which stormed the worldwide box office, putting the Tom Cruise starrer in the back seat. On top of that, it lost IMAX screens to the Christopher Nolan directorial, thus suffering a major blow. A good release plan could have been a game-changer.
Let’s hope such mistakes aren’t repeated with Mission: Impossible 8 (title not officially confirmed) as the film gears up for the release on 23rd May 2025.
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(Note: Box office numbers are based on estimates and various sources. Numbers have not been independently verified by Koimoi)
