Tom Cruise is taking the unusual step of personally getting on the phone with studio executives as he tries to secure an extended run on premium screens for his upcoming action thriller Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.
The 60-year-old actor and daredevil — who Steven Spielberg credited for “saving Hollywood’s a**” with Top Gun: Maverick — uses all the power he’s built up over the years to convince executives to spend the three weeks lasting exclusive runs on IMAX screens that Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Oppenheimer currently has, according to Puk.
Mission: Impossible 7 is currently scheduled for a July 12 release, which is two days earlier in the week than usual.
It will make full use of premium IMAX screens for the next week, until Oppenheimer takes over and gets a three-week exclusive run on all IMAX screens, a privilege virtually unheard of for the kind of adult drama Nolan reportedly created.
However, the 52-year-old Dark Knight director is also an acolyte and proponent of IMAX movie cameras, which use large-format film and create sharper images and more vibrant colors than most traditional formats, so it makes sense that he would appreciate the benefits of an extended run in the premium theatres.
Getting personal: Tom Cruise, 60, has been calling studio execs hoping to kick Oppenheimer off some IMAX screens in favor of Mission: Impossible 7, or replace the Barbie movie with other premium formats, Puck reported Thursday; seen in February
Taking Over: Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer opens July 21, just a week and a half after Mission: Impossible 7. It will then kick the Cruise movie off IMAX screens for a three-week exclusive run; still from Oppenheimer
Nolan can also claim dibs on the release date, as Universal put Oppenheimer on the calendar in 2021 when he started filming, while M:I 7 was pushed back repeatedly – at one point to accommodate Cruise’s other film Top Gun: Maverick – and only landed later on its July 12 opening date.
Sources told Puck’s Matthew Belloni that Cruise “expressed extreme displeasure” at apparently not being able to get Universal to give in to Oppenheimer’s IMAX exclusive window.
He has a financial motive to get M:I 7 into premium theaters as they command higher ticket prices and can add millions to the gross of a high-profile movie.
According to Puck, $110 million from Top Gun: Maverick’s astonishing $1.49 worldwide gross came from IMAX screenings alone, and hundreds of millions more came from other premium formats, including Dolby Cinema theaters and immersive 4DX theaters.
Many fans are already buying tickets to Oppenheimer’s opening week IMAX screenings.
It’s a priority for Nolans fans and cinephiles in general, as he shot the entire movie in IMAX format and he relied on the rare IMAX movie cameras rather than the more common digital cameras.
In contrast, M:I 7 and most other movies using the technology only shoot for certain action sequences.
While most movies are now shot with digital cameras, Nolan has continued to use celluloid film, which he and many movie buffs consider higher quality and more visually appealing. It is also easier to store than digital movie files, which require regularly updated technology.
Extreme Measures: It’s practically unheard of for a star to directly call executives and exhibitors to sell another movie. Cruise was previously praised for “rescuing Hollywood’s a**” with Steven Spielberg’s Top Gun: Maverick; still from M:I 7
Champion: Nolan has long been an IMAX booster and he shot Oppenheimer exclusively on IMAX 70mm film, which helped him get such a long run in the premium theaters; Nolan (center) seen on set with Cillian Murphy (R)
M:I 7 will almost certainly gross more than Oppenheimer, but its profit potential could be slashed by tens – if not hundreds – of millions without more access to more expensive IMAX screens.
This has been confirmed by an IMAX representative IndieWire that the company was committed to Nolan’s three-week run on his screens with Oppenheimer.
In addition to his seemingly unsuccessful attempt to knock Oppenheimer off IMAX screens, Cruise has also requested exhibitors to give M:I 7 more screens of other premium formats.
If successful, it will frustrate viewers who are eagerly planning doubles for the opening weekend of both Oppenheimer and Warner Bros.’ Barbie movie, directed by Greta Gerwig.
Warner Bros. was Nolan’s permanent home, but after a disagreement over WB’s plans to release Tenet on HBO Max at the same time as in theaters, which may have robbed it of much of its box office earnings, the studio opted to turn its Barbie movie in the same opening weekend as Oppenheimer.
That’s spawned a series of memes about how guys will see Oppenheimer while girls go to Barbie, though many movie fans are equally excited about the two big-budget author-driven films.
It’s still unclear how successful Cruise will be in breaking Oppenheimer and Barbie’s lock on premium screens, or whether he’ll wreak havoc on couples who can’t get tickets to their desired double feature on opening weekend.
The actor has even gone so far as to ask his rival studios to postpone the release dates of their films in an effort to allow all films to earn their full potential.
However, the studios will almost certainly not comply with such a request, and it doesn’t appear that he or Paramount have any plans to push back M:I 7 to give it a quiet marketplace.
It’s raining on their parade: Cinephiles and film buffs are already planning double movies for Barbie (pictured) and Oppenheimer’s open weekend, though Cruise could thwart those plans if he’s successful
Do not lift yourself! At just under three hours, Oppenheimer is Nolan’s longest film. Full prints of the large format IMAX film run for an astonishing 18 miles and weigh about 600 pounds
The controversy over Oppenheimer’s screen lock comes after Variety reported that the film had earned Nolan his first R rating since his 2002 thriller Insomnia, starring Al Pacino and the late Robin Williams.
The Associated Press reported that Oppenheimer is his longest film, at just under three hours, making the larger IMAX prints an incredible 11 miles from end to end, and the film weighs about 600 pounds in total.
Cillian Murphy stars in Nolan’s film as J. Robert Oppenheimer, the physicist seen as the “father of the atomic bomb,” later dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki near the end of World War II.
Emily Blunt, Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr., Florence Pugh, Rami Malek and Kenneth Branagh also appear in the film.