Box Office: Mission Impossible — Final Reckoning surpasses Dead Reckoning in pre-sales, aiming to top MI2 Memorial Day opening

Tom Cruise is set to be back on the big screen with Mission: Impossible — The Final Reckoning, and the action-packed finale is already gaining momentum at the US box office. The eighth installment in the MI franchise is outpacing its 2023 predecessor, Dead Reckoning Part One, in pre-sales by 1.2x at the same point before launch, largely driven by premium formats such as IMAX and PLF. With the surge, the film is well-positioned to challenge some of the franchise’s and Memorial Day weekend’s biggest opening records.

Despite strong competition from Disney’s Lilo & Stitch, The Final Reckoning is expected to finish second over the holiday frame, yet potentially as the highest-grossing second-place finish ever for Memorial Day weekend. Current tracking suggests that it may crack the Top 20 biggest Memorial Day openings of all time.

Cruise and director Christopher McQuarrie’s latest collaboration is expected to rake in USD 80 million to easily surpass the three-day and four-day opening numbers of both Fallout (USD 61.2M in 2018) and Dead Reckoning (USD 54.7M in 2023). The major question, however, is whether The Final Reckoning can beat the longstanding Memorial Day dominance of Mission: Impossible II. Released in 2000, MI2 debuted on a Wednesday and ultimately pulled a staggering USD 91.8 million six-day haul across the holiday.

To match or beat that, The Final Reckoning would need sustained momentum beyond pre-sales, but current trends suggest it has kicked off the fight. Regardless of whether it manages to top that record or not, Final Reckoning is likely to set a new high for the franchise’s non-Wednesday Memorial Day launch and will deliver one of the most impressive finishes ever.

Featuring returning stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett, The Final Reckoning serves as the franchise’s epic conclusion. Filmed across the UK, Malta, South Africa, and Norway, the film has been in the making since 2019, with production delays due to the SAG-AFTRA strike—which also snowballed its budget to a reported USD 400 million.

Set to screen at the Cannes Film Festival on May 14, the film opens wide in the States on May 23. With the aforementioned estimated budget, it will be imperative for Cruise’s final mission to become the most successful film of his career. That prestige is currently held by Top Gun: Maverick, which grossed USD 1.4 billion worldwide.

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