Paramount Studios may have milked their Mission: Impossible franchise a little too much over the years, but it has been coming to light that they may not have a very good relationship with the lead – Tom Cruise.
The Wall Street Journal back in 2006 reported that Viacom, Paramount’s parent company, had been facing troubles with Mission: Impossible III due to Tom Cruise’s problematic behavior.
Before Philippe Dauman took over as the CEO of Viacom in 2016, the late Sumner Redstone headed the conglomerate. He made it public that the studio was not happy with how the film had performed.
Redstone was registered as one of the most credible media magnates of his time and his intent to let Cruise go came off as a surprise to most fans.
What Issue Does Paramount Really Have With Tom Cruise?
Mission: Impossible II earned the studios a whopping $549M. The third installment, though, wrapped it up at $399M in global sales.
This infuriated Sumner Redstone to the point that he blamed Tom Cruise for complicating the franchise and messing with it creatively, owing to the latter’s Scientology connections.
Redstone said to Wall Street Journal,
“We don’t think that someone who effectuates creative suicide and costs the company revenue should be on the lot. His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount.”
Vanity Fair in 2005 reported that Tom Cruise had lost his ‘marbles’ as he had been promoting Scientology over and beyond. Redstone added, “He had never behaved this way before, he really went over the top.”
Was Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Sabotaged On Purpose?
Setting the release date for July 12, only eight days before the release of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer and Greta Gerwig’s Barbie turned out to be a big setback for the studios.
But, was this a mistake or a deliberate move? Christopher Nolan has, for a long time now, championed the IMAX format like no other. Paramount’s decision, according to Bruce Markoe who heads the post-production department at IMAX, to be stubborn with the release date cost them big money. Markoe stated to Forbes,
“We wanted to get them to move it, to create more time to play both in IMAX to the full extent that they both wanted, but it didn’t work out. That’s not our decision – that’s the studios.”
Whether the move was a retaliatory action against Tom Cruise or just a bad business call, we can only look at the patterns that led to the film underperforming at the box office and speculate. It has so far clocked $452M in global sales.
Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two is on track for a June 28, 2024 release.
Source: Collider, The Wall Street Journal
