In recent days, Hollywood has seen Tom Cruise expressing his anger towards theater policies. He made this public after it was announced that Christopher Nolan’s new movie will be shown on IMAX screens instead of his upcoming movie “Mission: Impossible 7”. Tom Cruise fears that this decision will hurt revenue and affect the livelihoods of many people in the industry.
Programming problem
It is evident from the show dates that “Mission Impossible 7,” the seventh installment in Cruz’s famous series, will be released on July 14th. As it is an action movie with advanced technology and thrilling scenes, Cruz’s fans usually prefer to watch it on spacious IMAX screens for a better cinematic experience.
Cruz was initially able to secure bookings for most IMAX halls for the release of his movie. However, he faced a major issue when Christopher Nolan booked all IMAX halls starting from July 21 for his movie “Oppenheimer”. This caused Cruz’s movie to be removed from the IMAX halls and moved to regular, less costly theaters.
Multi-causal anger
Tom Cruise was angry for various reasons, including moral, technical, and material concerns. He was unhappy that something had happened to him, despite being referred to as the “savior” by Steven Spielberg due to the success of his latest movie “Top Gun: Maverick.” The movie was able to bring in $1.5 billion in revenue in 2022, helping revive the film industry after its significant decline during the pandemic.
Cruz contacted theater and studio executives, believing that he was entitled to reserve some IMAX theaters for his film. He asked for their solidarity and requested them to show his film, citing the revenue his previous film generated. He also requested the competing films to give up some screens for his film or postpone their release dates for the good of the film industry.
In Hollywood, show policies operate on a “first come, first served” basis. Nolan’s movie was scheduled for its current show in late July 2021, while “Mission Impossible” has been postponed multiple times due to Covid-19. As a result, the producers of “Oppenheimer” had ample time to reserve all the theaters they needed.
“Mission Impossible 7” vs. “Oppenheimer”
The movie “Oppenheimer” is about a physicist who leads the Manhattan project during World War II, resulting in the development of the atomic bomb. On the other hand, “Mission Impossible 7” follows agent Ethan Hunt and his intelligence team as they go on a thrilling mission to find a dangerous weapon before it falls into the hands of a villainous individual.
While “Oppenheimer” falls under the drama category and “Mission Impossible” is an action-packed film, suggesting that Cruise’s movie deserves the bigger screens with special effects, summer and holiday season releases usually aren’t optimized for IMAX screens. This leads to increased competition and fewer available screens for each film.
Universal Pictures Studios, the producer of Nolan’s film, ensured that they booked a large number of IMAX screens due to Nolan’s history with them and the fact that the entire movie was filmed with IMAX cameras. This decision was made as Nolan considers this film to be his most ambitious project yet.
Nolan has a history of pioneering in the field, with his movie “The Dark Knight” being the first major Hollywood movie to feature “IMAX” camera footage. This aligns with the current situation.
Tough competition
Unlike the crisis of competition for theaters, there will be intense competition at the box office in July and August with the release of highly anticipated movies this year.
Some of the movies available include comedy-fantasy Barbie, family drama Disney’s Haunted Mansion, and animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. The sports drama movie “Gran Turismo” and horror-adventure movie “The Meg 2: The Trench” are also available; the latter being the first work produced by Nickelodeon Studios.
