Paramount is trying to make you quickly forget about “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One.” They’ve officially retitled it “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning.” No ‘Part One,’ got that?
The slight title change comes as the next movie, which was supposed to be a direct follow-up called ‘Dead Reckoning Part Two,’ was delayed over a year from June 28, 2024 to May 23, 2025. It still doesn’t have a title, but internally at Paramount it’s being referred to as ‘Mission: Impossible 8.’
This all doesn’t change the fact that both 7 and 8 are connected, story-wise — when you title your movie “Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” then you’re telling fans to expect a “Part Two.” The problem is that Paramount is kind of in a bind, ‘Part One’ underwhelmed at the box-office, and there is obvious concern about the next one (which is currently shooting in Australia).
Dead Reckoning — Part One’ garnered great reviews, but it ran concurrently with ‘Barbenheimer,’ costing the film dearly at the box office, as it only earned $567 million worldwide. Paramount lost $100 million on the movie.
Maybe ‘Dead Reckoning’ did in fact get tossed aside by ‘Barbenheimer,’ or maybe audiences are getting bored by this franchise, which has been going at it now for almost 30 years.
This has all led to people questioning whether the franchise has run its course. A 10.25.23 Guardian piece asks the question “Can Tom Cruise get audiences to care about Mission: Impossible 8?” Nobody really knows the answer. There is, however, a good chance that ‘Mission: Impossible 8’ might gross even less than its predecessor.
This comes as ‘Dead Reckoning,’ the seventh “Mission: Impossible” movie, will be added to the Paramount+ on Jan. 25 in the U.S. and Canada.
Following “Air,” this is Affleck’s latest stint behind the camera. He has cast himself in the lead role, alongside Kerry Washington, Steven Yeun, and Gillian Anderson (“The X-Files”).