Weekend Box Office Results: Dead Reckoning, Part One Wins the Weekend but Falls Below Expectati...

Weekend Box Office Results: Dead Reckoning, Part One Wins the Weekend but Falls Below ExpectationsShow more

There are a lot of half-full/half-empty thoughts on the opening of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One this weekend, the fullest of which has to be the Certified Fresh 96% on the Tomatometer it has received from critics. That is one point below Fallout, two points ahead of Rogue Nation, and three above Ghost Protocol, and it no doubt helped the new film to squeak out the best five-day start for the series. Over in the emptier column, the numbers are lower than some were hoping for, and the film still faces the same burden as many films this...

There are a lot of half-full/half-empty thoughts on the opening of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One this weekend, the fullest of which has to be the Certified Fresh 96% on the Tomatometer it has received from critics. That is one point below Fallout, two points ahead of Rogue Nation, and three above Ghost Protocol, and it no doubt helped the new film to squeak out the best five-day start for the series. Over in the emptier column, the numbers are lower than some were hoping for, and the film still faces the same burden as many films this summer in outlasting an enormous budget that was amplified by pandemic fits and starts. That said, this one could have a happier ending than most. King of the Crop: Dead Reckoning, Part One Wins Weekend but Falls Below Expectations Mission: Impossible – Fallout is not only the best-reviewed film of the franchise, but also the highest-grossing, with $220 million domestic and $791 million worldwide. Ghost Protocol and Rogue Nation each came in just short of $700 million. But the best five-day start in the series’ 27 year history belonged to John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II ($78.8 million) back in 2000, and it’s still generally considered to be the weakest of the lot. It remains the only entry to receive a Rotten Tomatometer score at 56%. Paramount and analysts pegged Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, Part One for $90 million since its opening Tuesday night, and while the final number is coming closer to $80 million, it still marks the highest five-day start of the franchise. (It’s admittedly lower than Indiana Jones and the Dial Of Destiny’s five-day total of $83.8 million, but that was also boosted by the July 4th holiday.)
That may seem like the ultimate half-empty headline, given that Dead Reckoning’s budget is in the same stratosphere as Indy at $291 million. That’s the third-largest budget of 2023 with Fast X’s $340 million still leading the way. The bottom line suggests that just matching Fallout’s $791 million haul will not be enough to turn a theatrical profit on this one. That has not been a problem for nearly every film in the series (apart from the third entry, which released in the wake of Tom Cruise’s bad PR stretch), which never cost higher than Fallout’s $178 million, but they also did not have constant pandemic shutdowns. Projectors should also be reminded that these films have never had stratospheric openings. Fallout’s $61.2 million has been the film’s highest weekend opening. Dead Reckoning had a $56.2 million weekend, the third-best of the series, and that was with a two-day head start.
Reckoning is likely to begin outpacing Indiana Jones this week, but even with great audience response, it is running into the 1-2 punch of Barbie and Oppenheimer competing for attention next week. Word of mouth has been M:I’s friend, as no film in this series dropped 50% or higher in its second week wince Woo’s film. That could be challenged by its competitors next weekend. Apart from the third film, the lowest final multiple of the series has been 3.51, which would put Dead Reckoning Part One at a floor of $197 million domestically. Unlike Indiana Jones, though, Dead Reckoning has already reached $235 million worldwide, something Indy failed to achieve until after week two. It is still a long way to climb out of the red even as it will likely become one of the highest-grossing films of the year internationally. The Top 10 and Beyond: Sound of Freedom Holds Strong, Insidious Drops to Third Sound of Freedom , the child sex trafficking rescue tale boosted by pre-bought and gifted tickets by political action groups and starring deep QAnon believer Jim Caviezel, grossed $27 million this weekend, reaching $85 million in its first 13 days of release. That is more than Disney/Pixar’s Elemental did in that same timeframe....