Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One director Christopher McQuarrie reveals his hopes that the upcoming movie will surpass the success of Top Gun: Maverick. The Mission: Impossible film series has been running since the original movie in 1996, with Tom Cruise in the lead role as IMF agent Ethan Hunt. The six movies to date have grossed more than $3.5 billion globally, making the franchise one of the highest-grossing of all time. McQuarrie joined the franchise when he wrote and directed the fifth movie in the series, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, and he will helm movies seven and eight.
During an interview with Total Film (via Games Radar), McQuarrie shares his hopes for Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and explains how the creative forces behind the movie don’t view themselves as competing with other franchises, so much as competing with themselves. He even hopes to surpass Cruise’s most recent film. Read McQuarrie’s full comments below:
“We don’t see ourselves in competition with Bond or John Wick. We love those movies, and we admire those filmmakers, and we want to see those guys win. All we’re really doing is competing with ourselves.
“And coming away from Top Gun, we looked at that movie, and said, ‘We’re going to bury those guys. We’re going to crush Top Gun.’ That’s how we look at it. Our only rivals are ourselves. You’ll see things in Part Two that benefit entirely from everything we learned from Maverick.”
Will Mission: Impossible 7 Be A Success?
The Mission: Impossible movies already have plenty of clout behind them, and the franchise, spearheaded by Cruise, has been a massive success so far. It is interesting that McQuarrie mentions crushing Top Gun: Maverick, the highest-grossing movie of 2022, and one he and Cruise both worked on. This shows the ambition that both men have for the spy franchise. Early box office forecasts have Mission: Impossible 7 projected to surpass its predecessor’s worldwide total of $791 million.
Despite competition from Barbie and Oppenheimer, as well as Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, the movie is projected to have long legs, and could hit the $1 billion mark, which would make it the highest-grossing installment in the franchise. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One marks McQuarrie’s ninth collaboration with Cruise, and so far, they have managed to top themselves with each new film. Therefore, it stands to reason that Mission: Impossible 7 could achieve a similar level of success as Top Gun: Maverick.
While it feels unlikely that Dead Reckoning Part One will beat Top Gun: Maverick’s global box office haul of $1.46 billion, it certainly has the potential to get close to that number. The competition it faces could hinder its box office performance, at least in the short-term, and Cruise’s anger at Oppenheimer taking IMAX screens off Dead Reckoning is well justified. However, there is certainly cause to be optimistic about the long-term prospects. McQuarrie and Cruise are no doubt hoping that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will exceed expectations and become a huge hit.