Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Box Office Opens on Track for Franchise Record

Tom Cruise has lit a fuse at the box office with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. The seventh installment in the long-running franchise took in $15.5 million on its opening day in theaters (July 12th), including $7 million in previews. (Mission: Impossible 7 began preview showings on Tuesday, July 11th, rolling out in 3,300 theaters before expanding to an additional 749 theaters for a total of 4,049 nationwide.) At 96% certified fresh on Rotten Tomatoes, the blockbuster is projected to score a franchise-record opening of $90 million over its first five days in theaters. Dead Reckoning is very much alive and on track for a $250 million global start. 

Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) currently holds the franchise opening record with $61 million. 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2 — the only installment with a rotten score on Rotten Tomatoes — ranks second at $57 million. Other Mission: Impossible opening weekends include Rogue Nation (2015) at $55 million, Mission: Impossible III (2006) at $47 million, and Ghost Protocol (2011) at $12 million. At $3.52 billion, Dead Reckoning is expected to bring the 27-year-old franchise past the $4 billion mark globally and could top the total gross of Fallout, which earned a franchise-best $786 million worldwide.

“For a series that has struggled with finding its footing while somehow tumbling upwards, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One couldpossibly, finally be establishing a long-form narrative,” critic Patrick Cavanaugh wrote in ComicBook‘s review. “While it’sbilled as a ‘Part One,’ we’re given enough of a resolution to oneMcGuffin to feel like we were given a complete adventure, as well asknowing full well that there’s a lot more to come. After nearly threedecades and half a dozen outings, we might finally have real stakes andconsequences that will stick with the franchise in perpetuity, possiblyimplying that anything that happens in this movie finally has anemotional impact on Ethan Hunt (Cruise).”

According to Cavanaugh, “Audiences looking for thrilling actionand quippy banter between talented performers will get exactly what theypay for with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, andwhile there’s hope for the future of the franchise that there will everbe stakes, this latest outing is unlikely to win over any doubters.” 

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie (Rogue Nation and Fallout), the stunt-filled actioner sees Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his Impossible Mission Force team — Luther (Ving Rhames), Benji (Simon Pegg), Ilsa (Rebecca Ferguson) — join forces with pick-pocketing thief Grace (Hayley Atwell) as the IMF embarks on their most dangerous weapon yet: to track down a terrifying new weapon that threatens allof humanity before it falls into the wrong hands. With control of thefuture and the fate of the world at stake, and dark forces from Ethan’spast closing in, a deadly race around the globe begins. Confronted by amysterious, all-powerful enemy, Ethan is forced to consider that nothingcan matter more than his mission – not even the lives of those he caresabout most.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now playing exclusively in theaters. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is slated for June 28th, 2024.