Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One Headed to $240 Million Opening at Global Box Office

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is cruising towards a $240 million global opening at the box office. Recent projections have the latest Tom Cruise picture soaring to a massive summer at the movies. Those lofty numbers include a $78 million five-day opening period here in the United States. In a summer where there's been so much handwringing about movies and how they perform, this is a clear win for the multiplexes. (Settle in readers, that isn't really going anywhere as no one will admit that projecting film box office is more like meteorology than an exact science.) 

A lot of comparisons to some of Tom Cruise's previous heights with Top Gun: Maverick abound on social media. As with a lot of this summer's winners, there is positive buzz around this project. Word of moth has become a main driver of what does well and what does not. (It's not hard to draw a straight line from studios laying off droves of marketing professionals to these sink or swim movie results.) Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse are the most recent examples of persistent chatter turning the tides for a film.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two Filming Paused Due To Actors Strike

With the movie tracking to do well, it seems like the wait for Part Two is going to be lengthy. SAG-AFTRA called for a strike on Thursday afternoon. The union's leadership wants the studios to negotiate in good faith. Duncan Crabtree-Ireland, the National Executive Director and Chief Negotiator for SAG-AFTRA, broke down how things got to this point during a press conference.

"Yesterday our union celebrated the 90th anniversary of the incorporation of Screen Actors Guild," Crabtree-Ireland said. "During our nearly century long existence we've fought for and achieved countless gains for working actors. Today, we embark on a new important chapter in our unions history. Earlier this morning, the SAG-AFTRA national board convened following four weeks of negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television producers in a meeting, because AMPTP remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on key issues essential to protecting the livelihoods of working actors and performers. SAG AFTRA as national board unanimously voted to issue a strike order against the studios and streamers."

Mission: Impossible 7 Almost Opened With De-Aged Tom Cruise

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One almost began with a de-aged Tom Cruise sequence. But, director Christopher McQuarrie told TotalFilm that they pivoted away from that because they wanted the focus to be on the story at hand and not the technology.

"Originally, there had been a whole sequence at the beginning of the movie was going to take place in 1989," McQuarrie explained. "We talked about it as a cold open, we talked about it as flashbacks in the movie, we looked at de-aging."

"One of the big things about [de-aging] I was looking at while researching, I kept saying, 'Boy, this de-aging is really good' or 'This de-aging is not so good. Never did I find myself actually following the story," he added. "-I was so distracted by an actor that I had known for however long was now suddenly this young person."

Thinking of Checking Out Mission: Impossible 7? Here's What To Expect

Tom Cruise is back as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which premiered in theaters on July 12th. It's the beginning of the end for the action-packed franchise, as Cruise reteams with longtime collaborator and filmmaker Christopher McQuarrie for more death-defying and breathtaking stunts. Hunt and allies Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson), Luther Stickell (Ving Rhames), and Benji Dunn (Simon Pegg) attempt to track down a new weapon with the power to tear the world apart. Actors Hayley Atwell, Pom Klementieff, and Esai Morales join the cast for the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which is set to wrap up with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two.

Will you be seeing this movie on opening night? Let us know down in the comments!