‘Oppenheimer’ has become the worst nightmare for Tom Cruise’s upcoming ‘Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One’

After the blockbuster success of Top Gun: Maverick, Tom Cruise is making his way back to the big screen with the seventh installment of his most hit film series. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One is the long-awaited sequel to 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout, and is scheduled for release in the United States on July 12, 2023. However, Paramount Pictures’ decision to slate the film for mid-July might result in bad business for Tom Cruise, and even worse, it could prove to be a nightmare.

Tom Cruise’s mega action film will be met with another highly-anticipated blockbuster by the legendary Christopher Nolan just nine days after Dead Reckoning‘s release. Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer, starring Cillian Murphy, is set to release on July 21, 2023. The competition between the two films won’t be a regular one by any means. An exclusive deal between Universal and Imax for Oppenheimer is threatening the box-office success of Dead Reckoning Part One.

Instead of the customary two-week exclusive window provided to directors who utilize IMAX cameras, Oppenheimer has secured an unusual agreement with Universal that will give the film complete control over Imax’s North American screens for three full weeks. This means that all 401 North American IMAX theaters will be reserved only for Oppenheimer for three weeks following its July 21 premiere.

The decision impacts both the success of other big-budget films scheduled released during the three weeks as well as Imax’s business, since Tom Cruise’s Top Gun: Maverick earned more than $100 million from IMAX alone just last year. The deal has also impacted Oppenheimer’s cut-throat competitor Barbie, which will reportedly not play at IMAX at all. In an interview with Variety, Imax CEO Rich Gelfond spoke on the matter,

“I feel sad in a way we can’t accommodate all of them. I know ‘Mission: Impossible’ is going to be a really big movie. Nolan has a special place in Imax’s heart because he uses our cameras and promotes us. It’s not a matter of us saying which we can make more money on. I would hope after ‘Oppenheimer’s’ run, we can bring back ‘Mission.’”

Commenting further on how IMAX handles these conflicts, Gelfond said,

“In a situation where there’s an unavoidable conflict, we’ll look at a number of factors: how the franchise has performed before, visuals, and our relationship to the filmmaker.”

In this case, it seems, that Nolan using IMAX’s patented technology for shooting Oppenheimer and regularly praising IMAX for offering the best cinematic experience has won him an upper hand over Cruise’s Dead Reckoning. The film will still play at IMAX, but will only get a one-week screening. But one thing’s for sure, July is about to unleash a cinematic storm like never before.