Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is now complete. Director Christopher McQuarrie announced in a social media post that the movie was done and delivered to the studio in its final, ready-for-release state. He also expressed his thanks for Paramount Pictures, friends and family for “believing in the impossible”. The post is accompanied by an image of Tom Cruise running in a dark alley. It kind of brings the movie full circle as this locale was among the first pieces of info that McQuarrie had shared on his social media when scouting locations for the movie. Here’s his quote from the post.
Mission: Delivered
Congratulations to the best cast and crew on the planet and thank you for choosing to accept.
Thank you Paramount Pictures for believing in the impossible.
And thank you to our friends and families for your limitless love and support during the making of this film.
#MissionImpossible
#DeadReckoningPartOne
This turnaround makes the movie ready for a theatrical release almost a month before its actual release date. Seeing as the movie is fighting for IMAX screen space, I wonder if this early completion was part of a strategy to enable the film to be shown to prospective exhibitors in hopes of swaying at least some of them to break their pact with Universal Pictures or Warner Bros. and allocate some screens to Dead Reckoning instead.
With this situation though, it might be a good idea to prepone the movie’s release and have it open the week before, on July 7 instead. This would give it a full two weeks before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie arrive on July 21, enough time to accumulate a decent box-office haul.
As of now, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is set for release on July 12, 2023.
