Paramount’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One heads into its first weekend at the UK-Ireland box office, as the first of several summer blockbusters that will compete for audiences in the coming weeks.
Having started previews on Monday, July 10, Dead Reckoning Part One already has almost £4.1m in the bank. It will play in 717 locations this weekend – Paramount’s second-widest UK-Ireland release of all time, after the 741 of 2022’s Top Gun: Maverick, also starring Tom Cruise. 52 of those sites will be Imax, with Paramount looking to make the most of the wider format before Universal’s Oppenheimer takes over many Imax screens from next Friday, July 21.
The film is the seventh in the Mission: Impossible series, and third consecutive title to be directed by Christopher McQuarrie, who has also co-written four of the films.
In Dead Reckoning Part One, Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and his Impossible Missions Force must track down a dangerous weapon before it falls into the wrong hands.
Production was delayed from a scheduled February 2020 start due to the pandemic, eventually getting underway later that year and running until spring 2021.
The Mission: Impossible films have typically increased their total grosses, with all of the previous six landing between 2006’s Mission: Impossible III (£15.5m) and the last entry, 2018’s Mission: Impossible Fallout (£24.4m).
The biggest opening total for the series was the fourth entry, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which started with £8.2m in December 2011/January 2012, on its way to a £18.3m total.
Although this is the first post-pandemic Mission: Impossible release, Maverick showed that the Tom Cruise factor remains strong in the UK and Ireland, opening to £11.2m and becoming the highest-grossing title of 2022 with £83.6m.
The 717 locations is a significant increase from the previous high watermark of Fallout’s 584; that wide spread, plus the strong previews and Cruise’s enduring popularity, mean Paramount will hope to break new ground for the franchise.
That is despite two imminent blockbusters next weekend – Universal’s Oppenheimer and Warner Bros’ Barbie; plus another Paramount entry, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem on July 31.
Independent space
Although tentpole titles are reducing available screens for independent releases, a variety of films are starting out this weekend, including Tomohisa Taguchi’s The Tunnel To Summer, The Exit Of Goodbyes in 108 sites through All The Anime.
The anime title, about two misfit teenagers who discover a tunnel with magical properties, debuted at Tokyo International Film Festival in October 2022; and won the Paul Grimault award last month at Annecy International Animation Film Festival.
Russian films are starting to re-emerge at UK-Ireland cinemas, with Vasiliy Rovenskiy’s animation Pinocchio: A True Story, a Russian-Hungarian co-production, opening in 124 screens through Miracle/Dazzler.
Dogwoof is starting Squaring The Circle, a documentary from Control director Anton Corbijn about Hipgnosis, the art design studio responsible for many iconic album covers. The film will open in 29 cinemas this weekend.
Rui Cui and Xiang Liu’s crime drama Lost In The Stars will open in 26 sites through Trinity CineAsia; while Metfilm has Vinay Shukla’s documentary While We Watched, about Indian news reporting, in 27 cinemas; and Peccadillo Pictures has Anita Rocha Da Silveira’s David Lynch-inspired fantasy-horror Medusa in eight sites.
Limited releases include Bulldog Film Distribution’s A Kind Of Kidnapping starring Patrick Baladi, starting a Q&A tour this weekend; while ICA Cinema will be showing Portuguese title Where Is This Street? Or With No Before And After in its London venue.
In event cinema, Trafalgar Releasing will play Oklahoma! Starring Hugh Jackman in 290 sites across UK-Ireland on Sunday, July 16.
Holdovers may also be squeezed by the upcoming blockbusters; but Disney’s one-two of Indiana Jones And The Dial Of Destiny and Elemental, plus Sony’s Insidious: The Red Door and Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse, will all hope to find space.
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