Can 'Mission: Impossible 鈥� Rogue Nation' survive the crowded summer season?
The 'Mission: Impossible' franchise has often performed well at the box office, but audiences have seen a lot of action movies arrive at the multiplex this summer. The new movie with Tom Cruise arrives on July 31.
The 'Mission: Impossible' franchise has often performed well at the box office, but audiences have seen a lot of action movies arrive at the multiplex this summer. The new movie with Tom Cruise arrives on July 31.
The newest 鈥淢ission: Impossible鈥� film will be released on July 31, heading into the competitive summer season.聽
The 鈥淢ission鈥� films star Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, who works for the Impossible Mission Force. The movies are based on the 1960s TV show of the same name and the first film was released in 1996, with a new movie appearing every several years since then. The newest, 鈥淢ission: Impossible 鈥� Rogue Nation,鈥� is the fifth.聽
In the upcoming movie 鈥淩ogue,鈥� the government is telling Ethan and his group (portrayed by actors Simon Pegg and Jeremy Renner, among others) to retire, but Ethan and his IMF group are still determined to take down villains.
The first two 鈥淢ission鈥� movies were big hits, with the second, 2000鈥檚 鈥淢ission: Impossible II,鈥� grossing even more than the first film. The third faltered a bit, grossing far less domestically than the second movie did.
But if there was any doubt that the franchise couldn鈥檛 continue in a strong way creatively, or that audiences didn鈥檛 want to see more 鈥淢ission鈥� movies, the fourth movie, 2011鈥檚 鈥淢ission: Impossible 鈥� Ghost Protocol,鈥� put them to rest. The film became the seventh-highest-grossing movie of the year (compared to the third movie becoming the fourteenth-highest of its year) and the film was also highly acclaimed, with some聽reviewers even selecting it as one of the best movies to be released that year, a rarity for a mainstream action movie.聽
So is 鈥淩ogue鈥� a guaranteed hit? The 鈥淢ission: Impossible鈥� series name is still recognizable to many and so fans will still doubtless turn out. But 鈥淕host鈥� was released during the holiday season, a somewhat unlikely choice. Other movies to be released that month included the romantic comedy 鈥淣ew Year鈥檚 Eve,鈥� the comedy 鈥淭he Sitter,鈥� the animated film 鈥淎lvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked,鈥� and such awards season bait as 鈥淭inker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy,鈥� 鈥淲ar Horse,鈥� and 鈥淭he Iron Lady.鈥� One of the only movies close to it in target audience and genre was the Robert Downey Jr. sequel 鈥淪herlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows.鈥澛�
The summer movie season is, of course, a much more crowded place when it comes to action-heavy movies. Audiences can currently choose from such films as the superhero movie 鈥淎nt-Man,鈥� 鈥淛urassic World,鈥� or 鈥淭erminator Genisys鈥� (or 鈥淧ixels,鈥� if video game action is their thing), to name only the movies currently in the domestic box office top ten. This summer has also seen the release of other action-heavy movies like 鈥淎vengers: Age of Ultron,鈥� 鈥淢ad Max: Fury Road,鈥� and 鈥淪an Andreas 3D.鈥� And recent Cruise-starring action movies that were released in the summer like 2014's "Edge of Tomorrow" and 2010's "Knight and Day" have faltered at the box office, though they obviously came without the "Mission: Impossible" name attached.
We鈥檒l see this weekend if 鈥淩ogue鈥� can survive in the crowded summer movie season.