• by Wayne Friedman , July 16, 2023

“Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One” pulled in a modest $56.2 million in U.S./Canada box-office revenues for its opening three-day weekend -- underwhelming movie analyst predictions.

Even considering the longer five-day opening, starting last Wednesday, the movie took in $80 million -- slightly below average, according to Comscore estimates. This edition of “Mission Impossible” was anticipating just over $90 million for that period.

The silver lining here is that “Dead Reckoning” will end up being the best movie of the “Mission Impossible” franchise -- seven in all -- for a five-day opening.

Other good news was its strong international results.

Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst of Comscore, says the $155 million from 70 international markets -- representing 93% of the international theatrical footprint -- was “impressive.” Globally, this gives the movie a hefty $235 million. 

Dergarabedian says that without China's results, internationally this edition of the franchise is 15% ahead of the previous “Mission: Impossible — Fallout.”

The downside comes as with the estimate that the movie cost $300 million to produce, before marketing.

National TV advertising and marketing for the film was estimated at a modest or average spend of $17.4 million, according to EDO Ad EnGage -- from 4,060 airings, getting 2.1 billion impressions.

After “Mission” came two movies in their second week -- Angel Studios' '“Sound of Freedom” with $27 million for the U.S./Canada box office and Sony Pictures' "Insidious: The Red Door" coming in at $13 million, followed by Walt Disney's "Indiana Jones and The Dial of Destiny" in its third week, at $12 million.