The production of Mission: Impossible 7 has been absolutely wild to say the least. The Tom Cruise movie was getting ready to start production in Venice when the first wave of COVID-19 arrived in Europe, closing down the city and the movie. From there it has been a nearly impossible mission to simply get the movie made and released, and now Tom Cruise and Paramount are reportedly clashing over just what will happen when the movie finally hits theaters.
One of the massive changes that has taken place in Hollywood as part of the global pandemic is that the theatrical window, the amount of time that theaters have exclusive access to films, has shrunk. Most existing deals between studios and theaters now only give about 45 days before a movie can make the jump to a streaming service, but according to THR, Tom Cruise is fighting with Paramount over this new normal. He’s insisting that Mission: Impossible 7 get a longer theatrical run, and he’s bringing in lawyers over the issue.
Paramount’s current plan for all its theatrical releases is to bring them to Paramount+ following the 45-day theatrical window. However, Tom Cruise, who is a big proponent of the theatrical experience (and also gets paid based on his film’s gross box office take) has a problem with that plan. And since Cruise’s contract reportedly requires that the new Mission: Impossible movies be handled in a method similar to the others in the franchise, the actor potentially has a legal argument to keep the new movie in theaters for at least three months.
This is just the latest in a string of issues for this film. The newest Mission: Impossible movie spent basically a year in production once filming actually began. Production of the Tom Cruise film had to be halted multiple times due to covid outbreaks on the set. Shooting also needed to be delayed due to required quarantines when the production changed locations. All this caused the budget of Mission: Impossible 7 to also blow up, which has reportedly been another significant point of contention between Tom Cruise and Paramount, especially because there is another Mission: Impossible movie to complete.
According to the report, the argument between the two sides on the release window has been “postponed.” With Mission: Impossible 7 not set to open until July 2023, there’s simply no reason to fight about it right now as no final decision needs to be made for a year. By the time we get to next summer maybe the theatrical landscape will have changed again and the fight will have become moot. Or maybe the two sides will work out some other financial arrangement so the theatrical window won’t be so important to Tom Cruise.
With the new importance that streaming services have for studios, but the value that box office results still have for many A-list stars, we’ve seen this conflict come up before, and we likely haven’t seen the end of it. We are in a major period of transition for the industry. At some point a new normal will be found, but it may take more than a few lawyers on both sides to get there.
