Since 1996, the Mission: Impossible franchise has put Tom Cruise through the wringer. He’s scaled skyscrapers. He’s leapt out of planes. He’s broken bones. He did whatever the hell it was that Mission: Impossible II was about. And yet, despite this pathological desire to risk life and limb in the pursuit of mass entertainment, it’s starting to look like Cruise’s most difficult job yet will be to get anyone to see Mission: Impossible 8.
The most recent Mission: Impossible film, this summer’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, did not exactly proceed as anticipated. The movie was initially slated for release in 2021, only for Covid to shut down production twice. And then, when it did eventually make it to screen, people stayed away in bafflingly large numbers. Despite being a critically acclaimed orgy of giddy set pieces, the film struggled at the box office. As things stand, Dead Reckoning Part One is the second lowest-grossing entry in the franchise after 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, earning almost $50m less than 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout. All in all, Paramount looks set to lose about $100m on the film.
