We’ll be seeing the next Ethan Hunt adventure a lot sooner than we thought.
The Christopher McQuarrie-directed M:I-5 was going to be the splashiest release this coming Christmas Day, with David O. Russell’s JOY and Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu’s THE REVENANT as its strongest competitors. However, that was still only a week removed from the inevitable juggernaut that is STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS, so Paramount has decided to do something ballsy: move its release up by five months into the already super-crowded arena of Summer 2015.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 5 will now be released on July 31st, where it faces down the Gyllenhaal-gets-buff drama SOUTHPAW, the Tarsem/Ryan Reynolds drama SELF/LESS, and the lamentable POINT BREAK remake. It will be two weeks removed from ANT-MAN, and the following week will give us Fox’s FANTASTIC FOUR.
Could it be that Paramount is loving what McQuarrie’s giving them, and thinks that the iffy buzz on FF4 and ANT-MAN gives them a late-summer window for box-office dominance?
There's also the possibility that they were worried audiences would be a little "spy movie"-ed out after THE MAN FROM U.N.C.L.E. and SPECTRE come out in August and November, respectively.
Regardless, moving M:I-5 not only up five months, but also smack dab in the middle of a white-hot summer seems to show a certain degree of confidence in this tentpole, particularly after the last M:I to follow the usual May release date was the series’ lone underperformer to date. GHOST PROTOCOL reinvigorated a lot of the franchise’s lost momentum (remember all the talks about Renner replacing Tom Cruise?), and I’d love to think that Academy Award-winner McQuarrie has blown Paramount execs away with the FAST FIVE of one of their only remaining tentpole properties.
I just hope they’re far enough along that they don’t have to rush this out the gate to meet the new deadline. If they got enough good stuff locked down already, expect to see a trailer within the next month or two.
MISSION: IMPOSSIBL5 shows you what crazy shit 50+-year-old Tom Cruise is willing to do for your amusement on July 31st.
