Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Already Broke a Series Record at the Box Office

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is off to a great start at the box office, as it’s projected to have already broken a franchise record. According to Deadline, the action sequel is estimated to have earned $8 million domestically from preview screenings that took place on Thursday, May 22nd. That figure would be a series best, topping the $7 million Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning brought in on its opening night back in 2023. It’s expected that The Final Reckoning will gross somewhere between $75-85 million over the extended four-day Memorial Day weekend.

Despite rewriting the Mission: Impossible box office history books, The Final Reckoning will have to settle for second place on the charts. Disney’s live-action Lilo & Stitch remake is poised to blow the competition out of the water this weekend. Some are predicting it make $150 million during the holiday frame.

In the weeks leading up to its debut, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning was always expected to do well at the box office. Early Memorial Day projections suggested that The Final Reckoning and Lilo & Stitch would lead a record-breaking frame over the holiday. Over the course of the Final Reckoning marketing campaign, Paramount did a good job generating hype for the blockbuster, essentially billing it as the culmination of 30 years of storytelling.

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While The Final Reckoning‘s Rotten Tomatoes score is the lowest for a Mission: Impossible movie in 19 years, it still received positive reviews and is Certified Fresh on the aggregator. In addition to the word of mouth, several behind-the-scenes looks at The Final Reckoning‘s death-defying set pieces were released, showcasing how the film was something meant to be seen on the biggest of screens.

Paramount is looking to rebound from the underwhelming box office performance of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which got caught in the middle of the Barbenheimer storm and “only” grossed $571.1 million worldwide (the lowest total for the franchise since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III). It’s encouraging that The Final Reckoning is off to this start, but it still has a long way to go to get to profitability. The production budget is reportedly somewhere between $300-400 million, meaning the film will need strong legs at the box office.

There isn’t another Barbenheimer type of cinematic event on the horizon, but The Final Reckoning will still have to deal with some competition. Next weekend sees the release of Karate Kid: Legends, which could capitalize on nostalgia and be a solid hit. Early June is when From the World of John Wick: Ballerina, the next installment in another popular action franchise, opens. Both of those — especially Ballerina — could eat into business for Mission: Impossible, which is why it’s so important that The Final Reckoning is getting off to a record-breaking start. It’ll be interesting to see how high the grosses go as it makes its way through its theatrical run. Ideally, it will hold well in the coming weeks and send Ethan Hunt off on a high note.