After years of the pandemic stonewalling Hollywood, 2023 emerged as a beacon of hope. That newfound optimism has soon turned on its head though. As we’re learning, too much of something is not a good thing either. In a bid to occupy the choiciest release dates, we have three potential summer blockbusters scheduled for release within days of each other. And that has certainly not gone down well with Tom Cruise, at least if a report from outlet Puck is to be believed.
As things stand, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is slated for release on July 12, 2023. Cruise and Paramount have secured as many IMAX and Premium Large Format (PLF) screens for the week as possible. Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer drops almost a week later though on July 21, 2023. And when it does, it snatches all IMAX screens, locked exclusively for a period of 3 weeks. To complicate matters, there’s Greta Gerwig’s Barbie starring Margot Robbie, Ryan Gosling and Simu Liu that’s generating its own hype around just what exactly the script entails. Produced by Warner Bros., Barbie releases on the same date as Oppenheimer on July 21, 2023.
From going a year without movie releases, we’ve come full circle, or even worse, with three summer tentpoles vying for the best screens. And Tom Cruise is reportedly mifffed.
Cruise has been trying to showcase and screen Mission: Impossible in a bid to get IMAX chain owners to change their minds and side with his movie instead. After all, chances are high that given the right number of screens, Dead Reckoning Part One could wind up being the highest grosser of the three.
It’s a tricky situation for exhibitors.
On the one hand, Nolan and Universal Pictures dated their film way back in 2021, striking a deal with the theater owners to secure all screens for the 3-week exclusivity period. Nolan has also been a staunch proponent of IMAX and is single-handedly attributed for introducing the concept of shooting feature films in IMAX, a format that was otherwise delegated to showcasing impressive demos and documentaries. Much of the marketing around Oppenheimer has centered around Nolan educating the masses on IMAX formats and aspect ratios as well as new technologies engineered for the movie.
On the other hand, Cruise has been a vocal champion of the theatrical experience. Dead Reckoning was among the first movies to suffer the pandemic’s wrath. Despite this, Cruise kept pushing, ensured that filming was completed safely, and held back for a theatrical release. He’s also having a great run at the box office as the $1.4 billion haul of Top Gun: Maverick proved; $110 million of which came from IMAX screens. A healthy run contributes to IMAX’s bottom line, more so with the genre of movies that is Cruise’s staple.
As of now, this is a deadlock situation with no resolution in sight. As things stand, neither Oppenheimer nor Barbie are budging from their release dates. With its multitude of release date changes, Mission: Impossible is the only candidate for yet another shif. Were that to happen, Cruise could either consider pulling it a few days ahead, giving it two weeks at the box office, or shift it to August after Nolan’s exclusivity window with IMAX lapses. The next week or two should reveal how the situation unfolds.
