Tom Cruise’s IMAX antics establish him – and not ‘Barbie’ – as the number one enemy of ‘Oppenheimer’

You aren’t going to find many stauncher defenders of the theatrical experience than Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan, both of whom completely and utterly refuse to even consider the possibility of lending their names to anything that isn’t going to play exclusively on the big screen.

However, when two titans of cinema have major movies going head-to-head in the same summer that release just weeks apart, then problems could potentially arise. That seems to be exactly what’s happening, too, after Matthew Belloni of Puck claimed that Cruise isn’t too happy with Nolan’s Oppenheimer gobbling up the majority of IMAX screens ahead of Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, to the extend he’s making personal calls to the higher-ups to try and turn the tide in his favor.

That’s understandable on the A-list megastar’s part when Top Gun: Maverick was a monster in terms of IMAX ticket sales, and Dead Reckoning director Christopher McQuarrie has been utilizing the cameras to capture his leading man’s latest bout of daredevil antics in the crispest quality possible.

However, Nolan has also been a massive proponent of IMAX ever since the format’s inception (no pun intended), so a war of attrition and battle for screens could be on the cards. Oppenheimer arrives on July 21 – only nine days after Dead Reckoning explodes out of the blocks – so Barbie could be left out of the equation entirely as Ethan Hunt establishes himself as the number one adversary for Cillian Murphy’s destroyer of worlds.