'Mission' Falls Short of Being Successful

By Josh Friedman

May 8, 2006 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

The summer movie season started with a fizzle as the Tom Cruise spy thriller “Mission: Impossible III” mustered a disappointing $48 million at the box office in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend.

Some independent trackers had predicted the third installment in the popular action franchise would top $70 million.

For its part, distributor Paramount Pictures had hoped the film would reap something between the opening weekends for two other Cruise movies it previously released: “Mission: Impossible II,” which grossed $57.8 million in 2000, and last summer’s “War of the Worlds,” at $64.9 million.

In recent weeks, “Mission: Impossible III” had evolved into something of a referendum on Cruise’s continuing appeal as an action star at age 43, his ability to attract women to theaters and whether a year of bad press over his personal life and Scientology beliefs had taken its toll.

It also was seen as a milestone for Paramount Chairman Brad Grey, hired last year to turn the studio around for corporate parent Viacom Inc. Paramount had hoped the movie would provide a big kickoff to the studio’s first summer slate bearing Grey’s imprint. The film also is considered an important step for writer-director J.J. Abrams, best known for the hit TV shows “Lost” and “Alias,” as he seeks to broaden his career into major feature films.

But analysts also pointed Sunday to broader implications for a business trying to sustain a box-office rebound amid competition from other forms of entertainment and new technologies.

“This was seen as a litmus test of whether you can still pack them in at the theaters, and while it didn’t flunk, it didn’t provide a resoundingly affirmative answer, either,” said Harold Vogel of Vogel Capital Management.

Vogel said theater owners would have taken it as “a good omen” for the key summer season, which starts the first weekend of May and lasts through Labor Day weekend, if “Mission: Impossible III” had grossed $60 million or more.

Typically, summer accounts for 40% of annual ticket sales. Last summer, industry grosses totaled $3.6 billion, the lowest since 2001.

Paramount executives said publicly that they were pleased with the opening numbers for the film, calling last year’s “Batman Begins” the most apt comparison. That film, which came out eight years after the flop “Batman & Robin” and revived the “Batman” franchise for Warner Bros., grossed $48.7 million in its first weekend and went on to make a solid $205 million.

“Mission Impossible II” and “War of the Worlds” benefited from holiday-weekend releases, said Rob Moore, the studio’s worldwide distribution chief. He said the six-year gap between the “Mission: Impossible” sequels hurt the latest film with teenagers, but that positive word of mouth would lead to a profitable run as the summer unfolds.

“If you’re 17 today you were 11 when ‘M:i:II’ came out, and you weren’t even born when the original TV series was on the air,” Moore said. “To a young audience, you’re launching a new franchise.”

He noted that the third installment grossed $118 million worldwide from Friday through Sunday, based on the studio’s estimate, outperforming the second “Mission: Impossible” thanks to the overseas ticket sales.

The movie, which cost $165 million to produce, is projected to break even with a global gross of about $300 million. For Grey, the results at least appear to validate his decision last year to play hardball over the film’s budget. Concerned about spiraling costs, Grey nearly pulled the plug until the film’s producers, including Cruise, agreed to shave spending.

“Mission: Impossible III,” which averaged $11,846 per theater, was by far the weekend’s No. 1 film. Still, most outsiders called the opening disappointing in light of the film’s high expectations, heavy marketing and wide release at 4,054 theaters in the U.S. and Canada.

Analyst Paul Dergarabedian of Exhibitor Relations Co. said the film could have been hurt by the distraction of Cruise’s off-screen antics. Cruise’s public life has been on display for the last year as he promotes the Scientology religion, and while he romanced actress Katie Holmes, who recently gave birth to their daughter.

“The only thing competing for attention in the marketplace was all the talk about Cruise’s public persona,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s hard to ever know why a film fails to live up to expectations, but in this case you can’t fault the marketing campaign. The reasons lie elsewhere.”

Brandon Gray of BoxOfficeMojo.com, who had predicted a $63-million opening, blamed a tiresome plot and a humorless marketing campaign.

“The story was generic: ‘Tom Cruise gets mad. Tom Cruise does stunts. The end,’ ” Gray said. He said previews played up Philip Seymour Hoffman’s menacing villain but downplayed “any sense of fun.”

Although analysts had speculated that Cruise’s appeal to women was waning, the studio said 44% of the audience was female, nearly matching the composition of the earlier “Mission: Impossible” films. A survey by online ticket seller Fandango said women rated it more highly than men.

Last weekend’s leader, the comedy “RV” from Sony Pictures, held up well at No. 2, taking in $11.1 million, down 32%.

“United 93” from Universal Pictures, the studio’s recounting of the passenger uprising aboard one of the jets hijacked Sept. 11, 2001, dropped to No. 5 from second place with a gross of $5.2 million, a 55% decline.

Among other new releases, the horror film “An American Haunting” from Freestyle Releasing took in $6.4 million to rank No. 3.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

Box Office

Following are the top 10 movies at the North American box office during the three days beginning May 5. Final data will be issued today.

1 Mission: Impossible III, $48.0 million

2 RV, $11.1 million

3 An American Haunting, $6.4 million

4 Stick It, $5.5 million

5 United 93, $5.2 million

6 Ice Age: The Meltdown, $4.0 million

7 Silent Hill, $3.9 million

8 Scary Movie 4, $3.8 million