The release of the upcoming seventh Mission: Impossible movie is imminent, and Tom Cruise has just revealed its wordy title. The soon-to-be-released Mission: Impossible – Death Reckoning Part One is going to have the biggest stunts and most globe-trotting narrative yet, and if its box office run is as long as its title, it’s going to be massively profitable.
However, the Mission: Impossible movies haven’t always been huge hits, and the series’ box office results yo-yo with each release. The seventh movie in the franchise could be the first to hit a billion dollars at the box office, but if it follows the pattern, it’ll make less than the last movie.
Mission: Impossible III (2006) – $398.4 Million
Mission: Impossible III was incredibly popular amongst critics, had the highest Rotten Tomatoes score of the franchise at the time, and was considered a return to form after the critically panned and uneventful second outing in the series. However, that doesn’t always translate to box office success, and in the case of the 2006 movie, it massively underperformed in Paramount’s eyes despite the high praise.
The film shockingly made $150 million less than its predecessor, which is a monumental dip and something that rarely happens. But it’s easy to see what held the movie back from reaching a higher gross. Not only were potential viewers not interested after being disappointed by Mission: Impossible 2, but M:I3 is much darker in tone too. And though villain Owen Davian (Philip Seymoure Hoffman) is the best character to appear in only one M:I movie, Hoffman plays the role way more sinister and way less theatrical than the typical M:I villain.
Mission: Impossible (1996) – $457.7 Million
As was the case with any Tom Cruise-starring movie in the 90s, as he was the most bankable star in the world, Mission: Impossible was a huge success. The movie is a perfectly paced action thriller full of huge set pieces and focused espionage and stealth. And with a budget of $80 million, the movie made way more worldwide than what Paramount projected, all but confirming that it was the start of a long-running franchise.
And while loads of actors do their stunts and even Cruise’s stunts have become increasingly death-defying with each consecutive release in the series, the 1996 movie started it all. At the time, Cruise hanging from a bungee was the most jaw-dropping and heart-racing sequence viewers could imagine, and they showed up in droves to see it. But little did they know that the sequence was the M:I franchise at its absolute tamest.
Mission: Impossible II (2000) – $547.4 Million
Mission: Impossible II made almost $100 million more than its predecessor, and that’s mostly owed to how well-received the first movie was. Just like how The Matrix Reloaded made almost double that of the original movie despite being much worse in quality, Mission: Impossible II’s box office success is all thanks to the franchise name.
Despite being directed by John Woo, one of the most celebrated action directors ever and someone who was doing gun-fu decades before it was popularized in John Wick, his style and the blockbuster franchise simply didn’t match up. And because of the negative reception of the movie, though it did great at the box office, it also did lasting damage to the series. Mission: Impossible III suffered because M:I2 had tarnished the franchise’s name.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) – $682.7 Million
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation was the first movie in the series directed by Christopher McQuarrie, but he already knew the series well after doing rewrites on the Ghost Protocol screenplay. While the film doesn’t take the series in any particular new direction, it combines the best things of all the previous movies.
The film outdoes the Burj Khalifa scene of Ghost Protocol with more outrageous stunts, it returns to the original movie’s more espionage-oriented sequences, and like Mission: Impossible III, it tells a more engaging story that has stakes. In many ways, it’s the ultimate M:I movie, and it makes McQuarrie the best director Cruise has worked with. And though Rogue Nation isn’t the highest-grossing movie of the series, it’s only $12 million behind, making the series stable at the box office for the first time.
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) – $694.7 Million
When it comes to Mission: Impossible, it’s almost as if the previous movie in the series determines the following movie’s success. M:I2 performed well because the original was well-received, M:I3 performed poorly because M:I2 was badly received, and now, after the critical acclaim of M:I3, Ghost Protocol made an outstanding $300 million more than its predecessor. That’s even more impressive considering that the fourquel had a lower budget than its predecessor too, which was probably a result of worry from Paramount after the third movie’s box office result.
However, not all of its success is owed to Mission: Impossible III, as Ghost Protocol, is the most entertaining and features the most meticulously shot action pieces of the series. 2011 is the most influential year for action movies and Ghost Protocol is part of the reason why, whether it’s the epic Burj Khalifa climb or the fact that every piece of IMF tech malfunctions, making it the most unique M:I release.
Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018) – $791.6 Million
Christopher McQuarrie is the first director to have ever returned to the Mission: Impossible franchise. And while each movie having a different director at the helm made for pleasantly visually distinct movies, the series getting its own Kevin Feige was the only way it was going to advance to the next step.
The sixth movie in the franchise is a 2.5-hour globe-trotting epic and sees the IMF team operating more like a team than ever before. It also marked the first time a villain returned, making Solomon Lane the Joker to Ethan Hunt’s Batman. Then there’s the incredible supporting role from Henry Cavill, and mustache-gate only promoted Fallout more. All of that combined makes for one of the biggest non-superhero event movies ever, and it’s no surprise that the movie made almost $800 million worldwide.
