Despite Tom Cruise literally dancing his way back into the goodwill of North American audiences thanks to his recent turn as Les Grossman on the MTV Movie Awards, and getting a movie based on the character greenlit in the process, things are looking grim for “Knight & Day” set to open tomorrow. Tracking on the film is poor, and most estimates put the film’s opening over five days to earn about $30 million. For most movies, that number would be one studios would happy to take home, but when its toplined one of the biggest movie stars in the world and cost over $100 million to make by some estimates, you can imagine studios are worried about the continuing viability of Cruise as a blockbuster star.
According to Deadline, Paramount have just received the completed script for “Mission: Impossible 4” and as the numbers roll in over the next few days, the approach to the fourth entry in the expensive and lucrative franchise may be changed. While a budget for that film is not set yet, Deadline speculates that while Paramount probably won’t kill the film outright, the budget for the film might be scaled back and the script revised to focus more on the subplot surrounding a protege who fill take over the franchise in any future installments.
News of the poor buzz surrounding “Knight & Day” has been floating around for a while, but what many tend to forget is that Cruise is still a major international draw. For example, “Mission: Impossible 3” grossed nearly $400 million, two-thirds of which came from foreign territories. “Valkyrie” grossed $200 million, more than half of which came from overseas. Paramount is most likely more than aware of this trend, and will really only get worried if the international numbers aren’t where they should be.
And really, we’re sure Paramount wants to keep the reigns on the budget for “Mission: Impossible IV” short to begin with. Remember, this is the studio that canned “Anchorman 2” because of the proposed $70 million budget (even though the first film had made just under $85 million at the box office).
But at the end of the day, “Mission: Impossible” is still a valuable franchise, and with the added credentials of production happening under J.J. Abrams’ Bad Robot shingle and with geek favorite Brad Bird directing, “Knight & Day” would have to do “Jonah Hex” sized numbers to stop it from happening.