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By Joshua Rich
Joshua Rich
Joshua Rich is a staff editor for EW.com

He jet-setted around the world, shared baby stories on The View, and even did a cringe-worthy white-man dance on BET. But none of Tom Cruise's publicity maneuvers seemed to draw the crowds to Mission: Impossible III that would make the movie a runaway blockbuster hit.

The opening? $47.7 million. A big number, but one with disappointments. Particularly when you consider Cruise's potential nine-figure payday, the film's reported $165 million budget (which is rumored to be larger), and the fact that Van Helsing performed better ($51.7 million) on the same weekend two years ago. Most predictions had M:I-3 making $10 to $20 million more than its final first-weekend take, in part because Paramount released it on 4,054 screens. That fourth-biggest rollout in history yielded an $11,777-per-screen average—substantially lower than M:I ($15,085 per screen) and M:I-2 ($15,835), both of which hit theaters on holidays.

So where did Cruise's audience go? Well, all that talk about how the actor has alienated women — long a part of his core fan base — may well have proved true. According to the independent research firm CinemaScore, men outnumbered women at the ticket counter by a three-to-two margin, a modest deterioration from War of the Worlds. More disturbing for the Cruise camp: Members of the pivotal under-25 demo constituted a mere one-third of M:I-3's audience. The kids stayed away. And that, friends, is not good. But Paramount marketing and distribution president Rob Moore maintains, "The key is where the movie finishes. We should end up with a great outcome."

In the last issue of EW, we asked whether Cruise is still worth the many millions that he's paid. Well, here's where his latest project stands. Pros: Overseas, M:I-3 far exceeded its domestic take, and Cruise's global bankability will likely boost the bottom line. Also, the film should hold strong this weekend against Poseidon, which has been tracking poorly. Cons: history. Any fair estimate of this movie's finances suggests that it needs to make well over $200 million domestically to turn a profit. But while nearly all of Cruise's films in the last 15 years have earned $100 million in the U.S. and Canada, just two have bested $200 million: M:I-2 and War of the Worlds. And without women, kids, and corny-dancing fans buying tickets, it doesn't appear as if M:I-3 will be joining them.


Posted May 12, 2006 | Published in issue #877 May 19, 2006 | Order Article Reprints