Summary

• Mission: Impossible 7's box office fell short of expectations due to tough competition and high production costs, hindering its potential success.
• Despite positive reviews and previous franchise hits, Mission: Impossible 7 couldn't replicate the success of Top Gun: Maverick, earning less than half its box office.
• The release of Barbie and Oppenheimer overshadowed Mission: Impossible 7, leading to diminished audience interest and lower box office performance.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One has had a rough time at the box office, as major competition and high expectations are a few reasons why it went wrong and put Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Two in a difficult spot. Paramount and Tom Cruise were widely expected to once again be among the big winners of the summer box office season in 2023 with the long-awaited release of Mission: Impossible 7. After the incredible performance of Top Gun: Maverick, expectations were high for the new Tom Cruise blockbuster action movie, as a repeat success was thought to be in the realm of possibility.

The path to box office success looked quite clear for the movie. Mission: Impossible 7's Rotten Tomatoes score broke a Tom Cruise record and made the movie one of the best-reviewed of 2023. The star also recorded back-to-back box office hits and once again risked his life to bring daring stunts to the big screen. Despite the goodwill Cruise and the Mission: Impossible franchise have had, the performance of Dead Reckoning Part One has not been as expected. The movie surprisingly s a growing list of 2023 movies that faltered financially. Here is what went wrong with Mission: Impossible 7's box office and what it means for the sequel.

How Much Money Mission: Impossible 7 Has Made At The Box Office

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 has had what looks like a good run at the box office on paper. The movie is currently the 8th highest-grossing movie of 2023 at the box office. Mission: Impossible 7's box office total sits at over $522 million worldwide. It opened below expectations in its domestic opening weekend with a mere $54M, but it has climbed to $159M domestically overall, which is good for the 11th highest total this year. The globe-trotting adventure has fared much better overseas, as Mission: Impossible 7's box office is propped up by the $360M made internationally. China is the top foreign market with nearly $50M.

Why Mission: Impossible 7's Box Office Is So Disappointing

Mission: Impossible 7's box office is relatively disappointing given how well it was expected to do. The Mission: Impossible franchise specifically has been in a great place since the series was revitalized in 2011 with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The movie earned a then-franchise record of $694M worldwide. While Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation came in just below at $688M, Mission: Impossible - Fallout shattered the franchise record by earning $786M globally. The expectation was that Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 1 would break this record or come close.

The bigger reason why Mission: Impossible 7's box office is disappointing is due to the success of Top Gun: Maverick. Tom Cruise's 2022 action blockbuster is largely credited with helping save movie theaters and was the hit of the year before Avatar: The Way of Water came along. The high that Top Gun: Maverick left audiences with was thought to make people more eager to see the next Cruise blockbuster made for theaters. However, Mission: Impossible 7 will make well below half of Top Gun: Maverick's box office.

Mission: Impossible 7's $290M Budget Made Box Office Success More Challenging

One of the biggest areas where Mission: Impossible 7's box office went wrong came through how much it cost to make the movie. Mission: Impossible 7's budget is reportedly $290M after repeated delays caused by COVID-19 and a prolonged production. Although the increased costs associated with the pandemic were out of the movie's control, Paramount letting the budget balloon to this extreme figure made the path to success a much bigger challenge. The Mission: Impossible franchise's success has come on the back of much cheaper budgets. Mission: Impossible 7 cost over $100M more than the next highest budgeted entry in the franchise.

If Mission: Impossible 7's budget stayed much lower and remained around $200M, the way the movie is thought of would change dramatically. Its current $522M box office would be viewed as a success, even if it was still lower than past entries. Instead, Mission: Impossible 7's box office has to get to $580M worldwide just to break even. In order for the movie to really turn a profit and make Paramount and Cruise feel a lot better about the future, this budget meant a global haul between $725M-$870M would be needed. That seemed doable after Mission: Impossible - Fallout and Top Gun: Maverick even with the high budget.

Mission: Impossible 7's Box Office Was Crippled By Barbie & Oppenheimer

The other big reason why Mission: Impossible 7's box office performed below expectations was the crippling competition Barbie and Oppenheimer posed. Both movies were far from guaranteed box office hits, as Tom Cruise's sequel was projected to outearn them both before all three were released. Instead of Mission: Impossible challenging Barbie and Oppenheimer's box office for the top spot, it quickly fell back to third place in this battle. Dead Reckoning Part 1 lost all attention publicly to the two new summer blockbusters. The desire for people to see Barbie and Oppenheimer in theaters easily overshadowed Mission: Impossible 7.

It was thought that Paramount made the smart decision to move Mission: Impossible 7's release date up a few days to give it more time before these movies came out, but it had no real positive effect. The aftermath proves that audiences determined Barbie and Oppenheimer were the bigger movies to go see this summer and to spend their money on them instead of Mission: Impossible 7. It did not help Tom Cruise's sequel that Oppenheimer's IMAX release became so successful that its run continued to extend instead of relinquishing some screens of the format.

Mission: Impossible 7 Hurts Dead Reckoning 2's Box Office Potential

The trouble with Mission: Impossible 7 at the box office has lasting effects on the franchise, as it hurts Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2's box office potential in theory. Instead of continuing to establish the franchise as one of the premiere franchises in Hollywood, there is a chance that audiences have made one of two decisions. They could have decided to check out of the franchise after Mission: Impossible - Fallout for whatever reason, or they might have determined it was okay to wait until when Mission: Impossible 7 releases on streaming to watch the movie. Either possibility makes Mission: Impossible 8's box office prospects look worse.

Why There Is Still Hope For Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2's Box Office

All is not lost for Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part 2 financially. The movie currently has a June 28, 2024, release date, although that could change depending on how long Hollywood's strikes last. If McQuarrie and Cruise are able to finish the movie to hit that date, Mission: Impossible 8 is theoretically in a better spot to catch audiences' attention. There is no major movie releasing against it or the week before even. That could help audiences be ready to go back to cinemas for a big action movie, as June otherwise has Ballerina and Bad Boys 4 set for earlier that month.

The trouble for Mission: Impossible 8 at the box office could come if audiences steer clear to save money for Mufasa: The Lion King, Venom 3, Despicable Me 4, or Captain America: Brave New World in July. The good news is that Dead Reckoning Part 2 should still get a big IMAX release and that it will not come out until after the strikes end. This allows Tom Cruise to do a full marketing and promotional tour in order to keep audience engagement up and encourage audiences to see Mission: Impossible 8 in theaters after Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One struggled to find its audience.