Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is coming to the end of its theatrical run, and the film’s box office performance has been very underwhelming in comparison to the other entries in Tom Cruise’s beloved action franchise. The film hasn’t quite made enough money from ticket sales to break even on its record-breaking budget, leaving The Final Reckoning near the bottom of the franchise chart.
Thankfully, box office performance isn’t the only factor that’s taken into consideration when ᴀssessing a film’s success. Whether it’s the warm reception from long-time audiences or the film’s continued presence in the cultural consciousness, it’s clear that The Final Reckoning has left a lasting impression that can’t be undone by its underwhelming financial performance. There are certainly valid criticisms of The Final Reckoning, but it’s fair to say that the sequel has done fairly well in the face of an otherwise insurmountable box office target.
How Much Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Has Made & What Box Office It Needs To Be A Success
The Film Is No Longer On Track To Break Even
The Final Reckoning may have exceeded expectations on its opening weekend, but the film’s ongoing gross is nowhere near as spectacular as many audiences of this long-running action franchise were hoping. The sequel had the highest-ever opening for a Mission: Impossible movie, but it struggled to maintain this same momentum in the weeks that followed. The Final Reckoning has the lowest overall gross since Mission: Impossible III, which is a very disappointing way for this franchise to ultimately bow out.
The movie’s box office performance currently sits at $167.6 million domestic, which is just $5 million short of the previous installment’s home performance. For any other movie, this would be very impressive, but The Final Reckoning’s enormous budget means that it’s certainly going to lose money in the long run.
Typically, films need to make roughly 2.5 times as much money at the box office as was spent on the production, and The Final Reckoning’s worldwide intake is currently $508 million. Since its budget was reportedly around $400 million, this means The Final Reckoning would have needed to bring in roughly $1 billion to simply break even, which was a hugely ambitious task from the beginning.
The highest-grossing Mission: Impossible movie was Fallout, which made $791 million worldwide.
It’s also worth noting that much of this tall budget can be attributed to setback costs from the COVID-19 pandemic and the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Both The Final Reckoning and ᴅᴇᴀᴅ Reckoning were strongly affected by industry delays and constant shutdowns during the pandemic, meaning that Paramount had to pump even more money into these sequels just to keep them afloat. The latter sequel also had to halt filming due to Hollywood dual strikes as actors had to stop working. This likely explains why The Final Reckoning’s budget was such a record-breaking total, and why its disappointment at the box office isn’t such a surprise.
Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning Will Likely Fall $450 Million Shy Of Being A Hit
The Movie Can No Longer Hit The $1 Billion Milestone
The Final Reckoning needed at least $1 billion dollars to break even on its budget, so the term “hit” can only be used pretty loosely here, but the film is still very far off. With its total currently sitting at $508 million, it’s hard to imagine that the latest Mission: Impossible sequel will even manage to reach $550 million, which is barely 50% of its needed gross. The film’s theatrical run is still ongoing across the world, so audiences shouldn’t completely count it out until it’s officially over, but it’s safe to say that the magic number of $1 billion is now impossible.
Judging by the final box office projections for The Final Reckoning, it’s safe to ᴀssume that Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s long-awaited sequel isn’t going to make the money it needed to be a commercial success. Thankfully, this won’t come as a surprise to anybody involved. The $400 million budget couldn’t have been the studio’s intended number, and the key figures must have been aware that breaking even was a very difficult task. It may not bode well for the future of this franchise (if there even is one), but it won’t be too much of a financial setback for Paramount.
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The Movie Could Still Make Money From Digital Sales
Luckily, the box office isn’t the only source through which movies can make money. These days, streaming revenue can be just as important as theatrical intake, and The Final Reckoning is sure to find another wave of success when it inevitably lands on Paramount+ later this year. Despite how strongly the film’s marketing leaned into the importance of the communal theatrical experience, audiences will still leap at the opportunity to revisit this thrilling action sequel from the comfort of their own homes.
And when the film lands on VOD services within the next few months, it’s bound to make some of that enormous budget back from digital sales.
There’s also plenty of money to be made from merchandise and digital sales. Mission: Impossible is such a universally popular franchise that’s acquired a huge fan base over the years, so it’s easy to imagine that The Final Reckoning’s official merchandise will continue flying off the shelves. When the film lands on VOD services within the next few months, it’s bound to make some of that enormous budget back from digital sales.
The Final Reckoning’s Position In The Franchise Makes Its Box Office Matter Less
There’s No Need To Greenlight A Sequel
Thankfully, the box office performance of The Final Reckoning is nowhere near as important as the previous installments in the franchise. For the other Mission: Impossible movies, the amount of money they made during their theatrical runs was a strong indicator of whether a sequel would be financially profitable. As long as the movie made its budget back and turned over some kind of profit, Paramount would continue making more. Since The Final Reckoning will supposedly be the last installment, the studio didn’t have to deal with this pressure.
Ultimately, the box office performance is a tangible way to measure an audience’s enthusiasm for a franchise, but Mission: Impossible shouldn’t have had any doubts that long-time audiences would come out in droves for this monumental sequel. Its box office performance may not have been what the studio was hoping for, but this was a movie clearly made for the audience, not just for the money. The Final Reckoning definitely succeeded in that regard, and its box-office disappointment shouldn’t taint the otherwise satisfying conclusion of one of cinema’s most dynamic action franchises.
