The budget of Mission : Impossible 8 with Tom Cruise would have exploded so much that he would rival Avatar et Star Wars.
The machine Mission : Impossible Is she going off the rails again? At the time of Mission : Impossible 3 (2006), which attracted significantly less than the previous two, all of Hollywood predicted that it was over for Tom Cruise and Ethan Hunt. This was without counting on the public's love for the actor-producer-stuntman-demi-god, since the saga reached new heights at the box office with Mission : Impossible – Fallout (2018) and its record of 786 million.
But the fall was all the harder. The next episode, Mission : Impossible – Dead Reckoning Partie 1 (2023), fell sharply again with “only” 566 million at the box office, a comparable score comparable to Mission : Impossible 2 (2000), without inflation. Knowing that this Mission : Impossible 8 had cost more than 220 million dollars (290 million in reality, but Covid insurance reimbursed part), i.e. a record budget for the saga, it was a mixed financial result.
Mission : Impossible 8 will arrive in May 2025 with the difficult task of rectifying the situation, and showing that it was only a small slowdown with no consequences. Except that it may have gone very badly since the budget for this new film would be completely crazy.
MISSION : IMPOSSIBLE BUDGET
It comes from The Hollywood Reporterso it is a serious source. In an article from November 1, 2024 devoted to the film's sequel project Days of Thunder (1990), in the same idea as Top Gun : Maverick which had exploded at the box office in 2022, the well-informed American media dropped a little bombshell about Mission : Impossible 8 :
“The project has had a long and difficult development, with a budget reportedly approaching 400 million due to delays – in part due to strikes in 2023 in Hollywood. »
The filming of Mission : Impossible 8 (still without official title) would have started in March 2022with a break to promote Dead Reckoning Partie 1 around its release in June 2023. The strikes in Hollywood then disrupted the schedule, and everything was officially stopped in July 2023. The resumption finally took place in March 2024. There is no doubt that these delays complicated production, and increased the bill.
This is not the first time that the budget for the eighth episode of Tom Cruise's saga has been the subject of rumors. In June 2024, Puck had claimed that he had passed the 300 million markwhich was already enormous, even if close to that of Dead Reckoning Partie 1.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE PROFITABILITY?
A cost of 400 million is another kettle of fish. It is a budget comparable to Avatar 2 (350-400 million depending on The Hollywood Reporter), Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (around 380 million), or the recent Fast X (nearly 380 million according to rumor, not denied). And that’s without counting the marketing budget.
Certainly, it is less than Star Wars: The Force Awakens (nearly 450 million), Jurassic World : Fallen Kingdom (432 million) and Star Wars : L’Ascension de Skywalker (416 million), considered the most expensive recent blockbusters. But it's not comparable since these franchises were aiming for much higher scores at the box office – one billion.
And that's the problem: the saga Mission : Impossible can it justify such a budget?
Apart from a few incidents along the way, the saga Mission : Impossible almost followed an exemplary trajectory at the box office:
- Mission : Impossible (1996) : 399 millions au box-office
- Mission : Impossible 2 (2000) : 549 millions au box-office
- Mission : Impossible 3 (2003 ) : 399 millions au box-office
- Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (2011) : 694 millions au box-office
- Mission : Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015) : 688 millions au box-office
- Mission : Impossible – Fallout (2018) : 786 millions au box-office
- Mission : Impossible – Dead Reckoning Partie 1 (2023) : 566 millions au box-office
There is no doubt that the phenomenal success of Fallout made the team want to dream bigger. Hence a Dead Reckoning constructed in two parts, at least in theory since the title Dead Reckoning Partie 2 was quietly abandoned at the end of 2023, probably to recalibrate the eighth opus as a film in its own right – and not the direct sequel of a film which attracted significantly less audiences.
With a budget of 400 million, Mission : Impossible 8 would need many, many theatrical admissions to be a real success. And if the billion at the box office seemed within reach after the hit Falloutthe lukewarm success of Dead Reckoning Partie 1 demonstrated that nothing was taken for granted.
Initially planned for 2022, then 2023, then 2024, Mission : Impossible 8 was postponed to May 2025. In France, it will be May 21.
The latest news is that Tom Cruise has absolutely no intention of stopping there… but according to The Hollywood Reporterthe studio would like selling the eighth episode as “the last”. The trailer should come soon, with an official title.
