Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Onecame into theaters with stunning word of mouth, the highest-rated reviews of anyMissionfilm to date, and a star inTom Cruisewho’d hit nothing but home runs for a decade and who was just coming off the biggest film of his career. However,the movie underperformed due to the weight ofOppenheimerandBarbie,and may yet end up losing money for Paramount in the process.
InMission’s case,Oppenheimeris slightly more relevant.Part of the takings of Cruise’s last movie,Top Gun: Maverick, and the previousMissionfilm,Fallout, came from extended runs playing on premium large format screens, IMAX in particular.However, due to an exclusive deal withChristopher Nolan,Missionwas only allotted one week on IMAX screens before the release ofOppenheimer, to the dismay of Cruise. It’s now been revealed that IMAX earlier went to Paramount and begged them to change the release date ofDead Reckoning Part One, because they could see this happening, explaining a later date would offer better IMAX returns.
Bruce Markoe, the head of IMAX post-production,revealed to Forbesthat IMAX had asked if Paramount would consider shifting the release date ofDead Reckoning Part Onein order to allow it a clear, uninterrupted run on IMAX screens which would give it a bigger slice of the action when it came to takings.
Sadly, and very much to their cost, Paramount stuck to their guns and the release date forDead Reckoning Part Onemay go down as a mistake.
“The dating of releases, especially on big movies, is a common problem. It’s a pretty crowded summer. We wanted to play both movies as much as we could becauseMissionis going to be a great picture in IMAX, but they [the studio], dated the movie right behindOppenheimer. We wanted to get them to move it, to create more time to play both in IMAX to the full extent that they both wanted, but it didn’t work out. That’s not our decision – that’s the studios’.
Markoe then explained that it was not uncommon for for studios to work with IMAX to secure optimal dates, stating:
Sometimes the studios work with us, and they do move dates around but other times they just say, ‘Nope, that’s our date. We don’t care!’. And then you have a conflict, unfortunately. So, this was a time where we couldn’t get the dates to be where we would’ve ideally liked.Missionmay come back and play [in IMAX] when we have another gap in the schedule – we may bring it back. There are a lot of big movies!”
Markoe later added that Nolan was considered the “grandfather” of the modern IMAX phenomenon, due to his promotion and endorsement of the format as the gold standard in cinema. Oppenheimerhas since broken IMAX records after taking over fromDead Reckoning Part Oneandhas secured an extended run through at least the next two weeks, with scope for further screenings into the fall due to the consistent sell-outs being seen for the film worldwide. Needless to say, underestimating Nolan andOppenheimerwas a costly mistake.
