Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning has some pretty challenging obstacles ahead of it, just like Tom Cruise’s character Ethan Hunt in this eighth installment in the franchise. The Memorial Day Weekend box office is filled with stiff competition, mainly coming from Disney’s live-action remake of Lilo & Stitch, which is breaking plenty of box office records. Aside from the impressive numbers Stitch is showing, The Final Reckoning is breaking records of its own, with the movie having the best opening-day box office gross of the entire Mission: Impossible franchise, signaling the start of what could be a good financial haul for the film.
According to Deadline, Mission: Impossible -The Final Reckoning earned $25 million on its opening day, beating out Mission: Impossible – Fallout’s $22.8 million opening day haul, which held the record until this latest installment. The film is expected to bring close to $78 million in its first four-day run in theaters, in no small part thanks to how much it has been marketed as needed to be seen in premium formats like IMAX. Based on that number, the three-day gross (around $63 million) will likely put the sequel as the biggest opening weekend in franchise history, surpassing Fallout’s $61.2 million weekend domestic gross. Overall, The Final Reckoning will hold a strong second place at the box office this weekend, behind Lilo & Stitch.
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While it hasn’t been confirmed, The Final Reckoning has been advertised, per its title, as possibly the last entry in the series. Much of the marketing surrounding the film has left a sense of legacy for this latest installment, with director Christopher McQuarrie and Cruise making The Final Reckoning the culmination of Ethan Hunt’s missions up to this point.
‘Mission: Impossible’ Will Have a Strong Memorial Day Weekend Performance
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is the direct continuation of the seventh M:I film, Dead Reckoning Part One. Despite this newest movie serving as a direct continuation and essentially the second part of Dead Reckoning, the title was changed for this latest installment, which required the 2023 film to retroactively remove “Part One” from its title. Regardless, the action movie had a strong opening-day performance, proving Tom Cruise’s staying power and ability to bring in crowds even later in his career.
Interestingly, Lilo & Stitch’s box-office projections this weekend have the film surpassing the record set by another Tom Cruise film, Top Gun: Maverick, as having the biggest Memorial Day opening weekend. Cruise’s legacy sequel to the original Top Gun was a box-office hit and a critical success, and is often credited as being one of the biggest contributing factors to the theatrical landscape, managing to stay afloat early on after the COVID-19 Pandemic. Despite Lilo & Stitch’s domination of the top spot this weekend, The Final Reckoning should still be able to carve out a good chunk of the box office for itself.
Despite being unable to claim the top spot, these initial box office numbers prove that McQuarrie and Cruise’s dedication to this two-part Mission: Impossible story was worthwhile for the creative team. While the future of the Mission: Impossible movies remains uncertain, the new franchise record is a big win for Cruise and co., as the latest entry has proven to be a hit with audiences.
Source: Deadline
