Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningmade headlines for its franchise’s best box office start, creating some hope that it could break a major record for Tom Cruise’s movies. Even thoughMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoningunderperformed financially, there were still high expectations for the eighth installment in this series. Tom Cruise’s return forThe Final Reckoningwas marketed as potentially thelastMission: Impossiblemovie. With new daring stunts incorporated throughout, it became a must-see theatrical release for many.
That sentiment was reflected inMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s opening weekend box office. The film set a new franchise record over its Memorial Day opening weekend. It grossed $64 million over the three-day weekend, while the total grew to $79 million when factoring in Memorial Day itself. That was afranchise-best start forMission: Impossibleafter nearly 30 yearsof movies. The sequel continued to do well over the first week of release. Now that its moving into its second week of release,The Final Reckoninghas fallen off a record pace.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Was On Pace To Be The Franchise’s Highest Grossing Movie Domestically
Mission: Impossible - Fallout Holds The Record
The record opening weekend forThe Final Reckoningimmediately put this film ahead of all otherMission: Impossiblemovies at the domestic box office over the same period of time. The result was giving Tom Cruise’s potentially last film as Ethan Hunt an opportunity to end the franchise on a high note financially.Mission: Impossible - Falloutholds the franchise record for the highest gross domestically, earning $220,159,104over 84 days in theaters, viaBox Office Mojo. This record gross came after the sixth film had a then-franchise-best opening weekend of $61 million.
The Final Reckoningbegan its theatrical run pacing ahead ofFalloutafter its opening weekend. That created a possibility that the movie could ultimately surpassFalloutand become the highest-grossingMission: Impossiblemoviedomestically by the time its theatrical run concluded. Thesixth film beatMission: Impossible II’s previous record high of $215,409,889. IfThe Final Reckoninghad strong enough legs, its trajectory indicated a potential new franchise record domestically.
1
$24,807,867
$22,803,458
$2,004,409
2
$20,311,131
$45,118,998
$21,421,918
$44,225,376
$893,622
3
$18,917,430
$64,036,428
$17,011,158
$61,236,534
$2,799,894
4
$15,004,692
$79,041,120
$6,838,935
$68,075,469
$10,965,651
5
$7,168,396
$86,209,516
$9,451,166
$77,526,635
$8,682,881
6
$4,806,378
$91,015,894
$6,328,934
$83,855,569
$7,160,325
7
$4,302,214
$95,318,108
$5,631,802
$89,487,371
$5,830,737
8
$7,504,490
$102,822,598
$9,851,648
$99,339,019
$3,483,579
9
$11,602,107
$114,424,705
$14,731,942
$114,070,961
$353,744
Having the holiday Monday to generate a larger-than-usual haul on a weekday helpedThe Final Reckoninga lot. The eighth film was at $79 million after four days compared to the sixth film sitting at $68 million after the same amount of time.The Final Reckoningmaintained its lead overFalloutthroughout the rest of the week, even though the daily totals were over $1 million better for the sixth film.
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning Has Now Fallen Behind Fallout’s Pace
The 10th Day Of Release Was A Turning Point
As the table above illustrates,The Final Reckoningwas quickly losing its lead overFallout. And after the second Sunday of release, or the tenth day in theaters overall, the 2018 entry had reclaimed its lead over the most recent entry.Fallouthad a domestic total of $124,811,186 after the end of its second weekend in theaters.The Final Reckoningfinished its second weekend with a total of $122,536,128. That puts the sixth film roughly $2.3 million ahead of the eighth.
A key reason for this decline isThe Final Reckoninghaving stiffer competition at the box office and having bigger drops as a result.Cruise’s new movie has remained steadily in second place behindLilo & Stitch, and it still had to fend offKarate Kid: Legends' debut.Falloutremained in first place at the box office thanks to lackluster openings for Disney’sChristopher Robinand the comedyThe Spy Who Dumped Me.
Whereas the sixth film only dropped 42.3% in its second weekend,the latest movie fell by 57.5%. That was the second-worst mark for the franchise, only behindMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning’s record 64.6% tumble.The Final Reckoningperformed more in line with the franchise’s previous drops, butFallouthad one of the lowest declines for this series. That’s now putThe Final ReckoningbehindFalloutfor the first time at the domestic box office.
Can The Final Reckoning Still Beat Fallout’s Domestic Box Office Record?
The Odds Aren’t In Its Favor
After squandering a lead that was as high as nearly $11 million previously,The Final Reckoningnow falling behindFalloutputs its chances of breaking the franchise’s domestic record at risk. It does not help that the movie is nearly 3 hours long, limiting the number of showings that theaters can fit into a single day. The IMAX exclusivity has been a key selling point, but that will end soon. Tom Cruise has pulled out all the stops with the marketing campaign and global press tour already, too.
There’s not much left that could help bolsterThe Final Reckoning’s performance as more summer blockbusters get released.Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningprobably will not make up the ground it’s lost toFalloutdomestically and will have to hope for one of the top two or three totals in franchise history instead. And with a worldwide total of $353 million, the movie is performing fairly well internationally.
