If there’s one film that was obviously impacted by the Barbenheimer cinematic cultural event, it was Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One”.
This Summer saw multiple box-office disappointments from outright critical and commercial bombs like “The Flash” to costly misfires like “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and “Fast X”.
The seventh ‘Mission’ wasn’t one of those, but it wasn’t a success either. With a box-office total of $560 million worldwide, it has earned more than the first three ‘Mission’ films but came in notably behind the next three.
Combined with its massive $291 million production budget blown out by filming during pandemic conditions, along with a further costly marketing spend, the perception is one of underperformance caused by bad timing rather than any lack of quality when you consider how strongly positive the reviews were.
Some have put the blame on both “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” for hogging both the screens and film conversation. However, even if that is true to some degree, then ‘Mission’ director Christopher McQuarrie holds no grudge.
In a recent interview on the Empire Spoiler Specials podcast (via SR), McQuarrie addressed the success of Barbenheimer and looked at the positive impact on the industry overall:
“I couldn’t be more delighted. We meant what we said when we went out and bought those tickets. I meant what I said when I went on Twitter – my last ever post on Twitter – and said, ‘Go pink or go home.’ Could not be more thrilled for Margot [Robbie], who I think is an extraordinary talent, a mega-star. And I’m delighted for the validation that the movie gives to that part of Margot that is that mega-star. And I hope the lessons learned from that are applied. Couldn’t be more thrilled for Greta.
Chris Nolan… you want to talk about between a rock and a hard place? You want to talk about a guy whose movie was a three-plus hour R-rated drama with nudity that leaves you feeling quote-unquote ‘devastated’. That’s a tough sell. That’s one helluva marketing strategy. And he won. He called it like Babe Ruth and he won. God bless him. Congratulations. That’s fantastic.
And it’s a triumph for original movies. It’s a triumph for films that are not sequels. And in the case of Oppenheimer, a drama. What movies used to be all the time. Tom and I just look at each other all the time like, ‘Man, it’s just about quality.'”
The Barbenheimer success and lack of interest in aging franchises has been seen as something of a wake-up call to the industry. Whether said industry will learn any lesson from it is not clear yet.
