It’s no doubt a real risk to premiere a pricey blockbuster at Venice or Cannes, just ask Disney (‘Indiana Jones 5’) and Warner Bros (“Joker: Folie a Deux”) about that. However, Paramount doesn’t seem to care — they’re fully confident that “Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning” is a banger and have now officially set up a world premiere at the Cannes Film Festival in May.
Now, ‘Final Reckoning,’ which will screen at Cannes on May 14, will be released only nine days after its bow on the Croissette, so it’s not as risky a move as, say, ‘Folie a Deux,’ which screened at Venice a month before release, but still, Paramount can’t afford to have their latest ‘Mission: Impossible’ tank with critics at Cannes.
‘Final Reckoning’ has a budget of $400M and, if you include marketing costs, there’s no way for Paramount to recoup its money back on this one, unless it does the impossible and grosses $1 billion worldwide, which is something none of the previous seven ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies have been able to achieve — the highest earner (‘Fallout’) barely hit $760M worldwide.
As for what else might be playing OUT OF COMPETITION at Cannes, some of the currently rumored titles seem to be Richard Linklater’s “Nouvelle Vague,” Spike Lee’s “Highest 2 Lowest,” Trey Edward Shults’ “Hurry Up Tomorrow,” Gregg Araki’s “I Want Your Sex,” Danny & Michael Phillipou’s “Bring Her Back,” and Andrew Dominik’s “Bono: Stories of Surrender.”