Mission Impossible 3 - Mission Failed

John Campea 38 Comments

A few days ago I put up an article where I asked if the jackass antics of Tom Cruise was going to effect the box office performance of Mission Impossible 3. I said it would. I also said it would probably come in with about $40 million on opening weekend. For the record, it got $48 million.

Now lets keep in mind that to ALMOST any other film release, an opening weekend of $48 million is a magnificent showing. ALMOST any other film. Mission Impossible 3 had much higher expectations coming in. Movie Industry analysts pegged the third installment of the franchise to take in upwards of $65+ million.

Keep these other factors in mind:
- Mission impossible 2 made over $57 million on its opening weekend back in 2000… and that with LOWER ticket prices.
- ALSO, look at the weak competition that MI:3 just opened against: Hoot, An American Haunting, RV and Stick it (only RV made over $10 million).
- ALSO, this was the first major “blockbuster” film release of the summer.
- ALSO, this one is getting better reviews than either of the first 2 MI movies.
- ALSO, the movie could ride on the coat tails of the recent Oscar win buzz for Hoffman.
- ALSO, the film had the 4th largest release of all time showing on over 4000 screens

Yes, all the ingredients for a $65+ million opening weekend were there… except for one sour lemon that got in the mix… Tom Cruise and his off screen tomfoolery that has turned a LOT of film goers off of both him and his movies.

Just before the release of War of the Worlds, I was interviewed by a Florida newspaper about all the Tom Cruise wackiness. The reporter asked me if I thought his antics would hurt WOTW. Here’s what I said:

“I think what we’re going to see is what I call “The Russell Crowe Effect”. Audiences will be turned off by Cruise, but the effect doesn’t happen right away. Our film culture is a pretty forgiving one, so it takes an A list start to be a jerk consistently over a period of time before the backlash is really seen. So no, I don’t think Cruise will negatively effect War of the Worlds all that much, but I do think that if he keeps this pattern of behaviour up, we’re going to see the beginnings of a movie goers revolt against him in his third Mission Impossible flick. We’ll have to wait and see”

The revolt has begun.

Yes, $48 million is a fantastic opening for almost any other film… but even the studio execs with their brave faces are admitting a failure here. This film was positioned to make far more, with far more people seeing it. Everything it needed was there… but so was Cruise… and that kept many away. Viva La Revolution!

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  • Shelley

    Personally, I’ve always found Tom Cruise to be a bit boring…now I cannot stomach him. Gee, he knows it all. If we made him God, maybe the 30,000+ Americans that died by suicide last year would be alive and totally well today.

  • Roshan

    Actually,i liked the movie very much.Much much better than the second.While in second the action starts only in the second half and everybody knows what is going to happen next this one is different.In the second movie John woo has dragged a lot.The last man-to-man combat,and lots in the first half.He was compromising his mission for an ugly girl(No selection for Ethan?)he luvs.
    In MI:III u cant really guess who is the sub-villian and u cant really guess what will happen next.This movie contains emotions which the other prequels do not contain.The last part of his mission to save the other IMF is an emotional one.In the second part,i liked the villian more than Hunt.But this time the director has made it such that villian looks like a villian itself and do not have the qualities which only a hero should possess(Like the second part villian-He is loving,he is friendly,he have leadership quality and everything a hero should have.The only thing is that he luvs money(everyone luvs money).So those who says will not see this one plz watch this movie.Dont go to see Tom Cruise.But should go to see Ethan Hunt.The write comments.There is no way u dont like this installment.

  • http://www.angelfire.com/art/jry/ Jason

    Bill M hits it on the nose and I think expresses the state of the industry in general. Why see a movie at the theater when you know it will be on DVD in a couple of months.

    Also Hollywood is doing what it has done for the past couple years now. Canceling itself out by releasing big movies every weekend during this time. The only guys who seem to have given themselves a reasonable cushion is XMEN 3. Their release date is far enough from MI3 and Superman Returns to not loose sales to either of them.

    Lets not forget bootleggers. I know they made a chunk this weekend from this film.

    Plus, this is a third installment to a franchise. The chances of a box office gross anywhere near the previous two is unreasonable.

    I also heard from Paramount the projection for the US mind you, was 58 million not 65. At anyrate 48 million is an awesome show of it.

    To Tom’s credit. If ANY other actor had been doing what he was doing. Then opened a third installment to a franchise. I KNOW they would not have faired as well. People who don’t like Cruise right now, often spend most of their time finding fault in celeb’s so they can come on blogs like this and say ‘I told you so!’….to give significance to their otherwise boring lives.

    Fact is. Tom works harder in his field then most people do in theirs.

    I liked MI3 and will see any movie with Tom. Because I know he gives it his all. I like a WORKING A list actor.

    - Jason

  • http://www.blueandbrown.blogspot.com/ Blue and Brown

    Do you ever get the impression that in the most literal sense Tom Cruise doesn’t have a sense of humour? When he’s in a film and he’s supposed to be enjoying himself, he looks like someone who’s studied ‘having fun’ and tried to express it without having experienced it.

    Surely ‘being happy’ is one of the easier things to convey on screen. I think there’s some part of his brain missing. Poor bastard.

  • Halcyon

    Yeah, I remember you saying this stuff and you were right. Great call John.

  • tony

    In reality what repeat movie was better than the original? tom cruise
    is no different in the movie, and who cares about him jumping up and
    down. No one goes to the theaters anymore because its a rip off. You
    cant enjoy the movie because your so pissed off at the OUTRAGEOUS
    prices in the theater, you just end up renting it on DVD again anyway.

    tony

  • R. Jackson

    Hey Zuke! I actually live in Santa Rosa California, but I’m in Kentucky right now working on a documentary. I saw that double-feature at the Judy Drive-In in Mt. Sterling Kentucky. It’s a cool little drive-in.

    They have a ton of classic bumpers that they show before, between and after their features. One is a ten-minute animated Intermission film where each 60 seconds is a cartoon that ends with a number, so it’s like three penguins march across the screen and then it says, “Three minutes left until the end of Intermission!” Another one I’ve seen has Dom DeLuise and Burt Reynolds (c. 1978) talking about what a fabulous value attending motion pictures is for you and your whole family. I’ve been running over there and catching the double-feature pretty much every weekend since I’ve been here in Morehead working.

    Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise. I thought MI:3 was entertaining. He’s an actor, you know? People get caught up in the fact that he’s a freak, but I’ve never really met an actor was wasn’t a freak. They’re essentially models with memorization skills and yet people look to them as a moral compass. Yes, Tom Cruise is a freak. So is Harrison Ford. So is Bruce Willis. So is Brad Pitt. I haven’t met any of those actors, but I’d put a stack of chips on the line that they’re all just as freaky and nutso in their own way as Tom Cruise. Not that Tom isn’t batshit crazy. He’s a loon. But, like all those other guys, he does action movies really well. He runs, jumps and gets angry as well as anyone else running jumping and getting angry in front of a camera. And one day he’ll probably end up turning “serious” and getting an Oscar for some “important” film and all the same people who made fun of Clint Eastwood’s crappy action films and spaghetti westerns will be just as shocked to see an action guy get taken seriously.

    But he’ll still be a freak. ;-)

    Sorry to ramble so long…heh…

    • http://www.google.com/ Cactus

      A bit suripserd it seems to simple and yet useful.

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