A new report at Variety indicates that both Disney’s “Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and Paramount’s “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” could lose their respective studios up to nearly $100 million each in their theatrical runs.
Both films are being seen as disappointments in the industry, despite the strong reviews for the seventh ‘Mission’ film, and a lot of that comes down to their outsized budgets more so than their soft worldwide grosses.
The fifth “Indiana Jones” has grossed $375 million globally after six weeks of release, whilst ‘Dead Reckoning’ is now at $523 million after five weeks of release. Both franchises saw their previous entries gross $790 million globally each.
There’s no question both came in short – ‘Jones’ looking to end its run with only half that of ‘Crystal Skull’. ‘Dead Reckoning’, meanwhile, will end its run with a respectable fourth place in the franchise overall behind the fourth through sixth films.
The trouble is the films, which are admittedly part of decades-old properties aimed at older audiences, had budgets of $300 million and $290 million respectively.
Shawn Robbins, chief analyst at Boxoffice Pro says: “These movies would have been a lot more economical if it weren’t for COVID. But even if that meant their budgets were inflated, at the end of the day, these movies cost what they cost and performed how they performed.”
Sources add that ‘Mission’ sits in a better chance to reach profitability as, due to the film’s financial modelling, it will break even if it can hit $600 million at the global box office. They add that profitability would be “over the film’s entire run, factoring in home entertainment and licensing revenue, and would include Cruise’s share of the gross”.
They’re not the only ones hit this year. “Fast X” with its gargantuan $340 million budget means the film’s $704 million haul at the global box office will just barely see it crawl into the black and should post a modest profit say sources.
A post-COVID diminished international marketplace means only four films this year so far have surpassed $700 million worldwide – compared to twelve in 2019 and nine in 2018.
The box-office success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” – all films made for budgets under $150 million – show a potential path forward for the industry.
