As the release of Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One edges closer, Tom Cruise wages war with Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer.
For months, studio executives have anticipated the summer’s big battle of the box office to be between Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie, both of which open on the 21st July. It seems that in recent days, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One has entered the fray.
According to a report published by The Puck, Tom Cruise had some choice words for executives over the allocation of IMAX screens to his film because, as Cruise sees it, Mission Impossible should be given precedence.
While Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part Onehas IMAX screens booked for a while, Oppenheimer has every IMAX screen in North America and other territories booked for a full three weeks.
It puts everybody in a tricky position. IMAX screens come with a ticket uplift that can add millions to the box office of a film, and like it or not, Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One is likely to gross more than Oppenheimer. Cruise will have the data to back this up too, with a whopping $110 million of Top Gun: Maverick's box office haul coming from IMAX ticket uplifts alone.
On the flipside, Nolan specifically shot his film using IMAX cameras, not to mention the fact that his deal with IMAX has been finalized for quite some time.
The end result is that Cruise is not a happy man, and has reportedly taken to calling studio executives personally in an attempt to negotiate.
We have no idea what the end result of all this will be, but we’ll keep you updated as we hear more.
