Well, folks, it seems we’ve entered another round of movies delays. Last month saw Sony Pictures pushing Venom: Let There Be Carnage back a few weeks, as well as selling Hotel Transylvania: Transformania to Amazon, with the animated movie’s drop date still to be revealed. Now word’s come in that we’ll have to wait even longer for Tom Cruise’s next two movies, as Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 have been delayed yet again.
Until today, the plan was for Top Gun: Maverick to fly into theaters on November 19 of this year, and Mission: Impossible 7 would follow on May 27, 2022. However, following both movies being showcased at CinemaCon and the pandemic still preventing movie theaters from operating like they did in the Before Times, Paramount Pictures has decided its better to save both these Cruise features for a time when things are calmer, per Deadline. As such, the Top Gun sequel is now taking Mission: Impossible 7’s old May 27 release date, and the next Ethan Hunt adventure has been moved to September 30, 2022.
But that’s not the only Paramount delay that’s been announced. Jackass 4, a.k.a. Jackass Forever, was on track to come out on October 22, but the studio has now decided to save the comedy extravaganza for February 4, 2022. As such, the next Paramount release on the horizon is Scream 5, which is slotted for January 14, 2022, though don’t rule out the possibility that it will be pushed back as well.
As already noted, this isn’t the first time Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 have been delayed. With the former, there was a time when Tom Cruise’s return as pilot extraordinaire Pete Mitchell was supposed to come out in July 2019, but in 2018, Paramount opted to shift it to June 2020. Mission: Impossible 7 was also originally planned for July 23, 2021, but the pandemic scrapped the release plans for both movies and continues to delay their arrivals. It’s unclear if Mission: Impossible 7 moving to fall 2022 will result in Mission: Impossible 8 being shifted out of its current July 7, 2023 spot. If not, that means only 10 months will pass between the release of both movies.
With the first Top Gun movie collecting over $357 million worldwide when it was released in 1986, and 2018’s Mission: Impossible - Fallout raking in over $791 million across the world, needless to say their respective follow-ups stand to make a lot of money at the box office too. So it’s understandable why Paramount feels it’s necessary to delay Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7 to times when the delta variant isn’t interfering with theater attendance anymore. Fingers crossed this is the last time either of them has to move.
Stay tuned to CinemaBlend for more updates on Top Gun: Maverick and Mission: Impossible 7, and be sure to look through our 2022 release schedule to learn what other movies are primed for next year.
