Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningis underperforming at the box office for a variety of possible reasons. The 2025 action film, which stars Tom Cruise as superspy Ethan Hunt alongside an ensemble cast that includes Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Pom Klementieff, Esai Morales, Nick Offerman, Hannah Waddingham, Henry Czerny, and Angela Bassett, is the eighth installment in the franchise, which is inspired by the 1966 espionage series of the same name. The movie’s release started off on a high note, with a $64 million 3-day debut that saw it earn the highest-grossing opening weekend of the entire franchise.
However, theMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningbox officebegan to slow down after a 57.5% sophomore weekend drop. Currently, it has earned just over $450 million worldwide as its fourth weekend kicks off. While that total makes it the fourth highest-grossing movie of 2025 so far,it is the second lowest-grossing installment in the franchise, behind 2006’sMission: Impossible III($399.4 million). It remains to be seen how high it can climb by the end of its run, but it is likely to end far from the top of the chart, which is occupied by 2018’sFallout($786.6 million).
1Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s Reviews Were Good, But Not Great
It’s Ranked In The Bottom Half Of The Franchise
While critics’Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningreviewswere largely positive, earning it a Certified Fresh score of 80% on Rotten Tomatoes,the new movie still pales in comparison to many of its predecessors. In fact, it has only the fifth-best score of the eight-film franchise, behind 2011’sGhost Protocol(94%), 2015’sRogue Nation(94%), 2023’sDead Reckoning Part One(96%), andFallout(98%). The only installments with worse reviews are the original trilogy (65%, 57%, and 73% respectively), which are also the three lowest-grossing installments other thanThe Final Reckoning. This could potentially reflect its ultimate box office fate.
2Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s Word Of Mouth Was Similarly Lacking
Image via Paramount Pictures
Audiences that have seen the movie are reacting similarly to critics, giving it strong ratings, but ones that aren’t quite enough for it to stand out.The Final Reckoning’s CinemaScore of A- (tied withRogue Nation,Mission: Impossible III, andGhost Protocolfor third-best in the franchise behind the A scores ofFalloutandDead Reckoning Part One) and Verified Hot Rotten Tomatoes audience score of 89% (the second-best of the franchise behindDead Reckoning Part One’s 94%) put it in a stronger standing than its Tomatometer score from critics, butsuffer from being a dip from its immediate predecessor.
3Mission: Impossible 8’s Big Stunts Were Incredible, But Didn’t Have Strong Enough Hooks
Another issue that may have prevented the new movie from building up steam ahead of its release is the fact that the impressiveMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningstunts, which include Tom Cruise hanging off of a midair biplane and navigating a sunken submarine, can’t quite compare to previous installments. The former likely suffered from beingtoo similar toRogue Nation’s stunt where Cruise was attached to the outside of a plane while it took off, while the latter lacks an easily digestible hook that might make it intriguing, unlike previous stunts such as Cruise rappelling down the Burj Khalifa.
4Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s Runtime Might’ve Put People Off
It’s Nearly Three Hours Long
Another issue thatMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningfaced is the fact that its runtime is nearly three hours long. At roughly 170 minutes, or 2 hours and 50 minutes,it is the longest installment of the entire franchise. It beatsDead Reckoning Part One’s 163-minute runtime by seven minutes, and that movie had already beat the next-longest installment, the 147-minuteFallout, by 16 minutes. This may have prevented some audience members who were already on the fence, either based on the Rotten Tomatoes score or other reasons, from wanting to commit so much of their time to the movie.
5Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning’s Runtime Also Unnecessarily Limited Its Theatrical Opportunities
Shorter Movies Get More Showtimes
Another issue facingMission: Impossible 8is that its runtime meant thatindividual screens could play it fewer times per day, resulting in fewer tickets being sold. Even if it had played on just a single screen in a given theater, if it had been 90 minutes long, it would have had almost two times the screenings, doubling the potential audience. While the movie’s IMAX screenings had higher ticket prices and thus could have been lucrative enough to make up for what might have been lost due to the runtime, the per-theater screenings issue does persist no matter the format.
It Debuted Over Memorial Day 2025
Another big issue facingMission: Impossible - The Final Reckoningwas the competition during its Memorial Day weekend debut. Although some summer 2025 movies such asKarate Kid: LegendsandFrom the World of John Wick: Ballerinawere the only tentpole releases on their respective weekends, this was not the case forMission: Impossible.It opened opposite Disney’s live-actionLilo & Stitchremake, which broke the record for the highest-grossing Memorial Day weekend debut of all time, beatingTop Gun: Maverickand taking all the attention over the weekend in spite of the fact that both movies were courting different demographics.
7Mission: Impossible 8 Faced Franchise Fatigue
There Have Been Eight Installments Over 29 Years
AnotherFinal Reckoningissue could be franchise fatigue. There have been eightMission: Impossiblemoviessince 1996, and the two-year gap betweenDead Reckoning Part Oneand the new installment isthe shortest hiatus that the franchise has ever had.While this is a less steady clip than some franchises, fatigue settles in differently for every film series. It is possible that coming out so close toDead Reckoningcould have prevented the movie from feeling as fresh as it might have if it had had a longer hiatus, such as the six years between the second and third installments.
The Previous Installment Also Underperformed
A factor that likely increased the franchise fatigue is the fact thatThe Final Reckoningis a direct follow-up toDead Reckoning Part One, which underperformed, grossing $571.1 million against a reported $291 million budget and becoming the lowest-grossing installment since 2006 at the time. The disappointingMission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part Onebox officeresulted inPart Twogetting retitled, but the two movies are still directly linked, both by the word “reckoning” in the title and in terms of their storylines. Thus, the movie wasstill marred by some of the same issues that plagued its immediate predecessor.
9Top Gun: Maverick Stole Mission: Impossible’s Thunder
The Billion-Dollar Legacy Sequel Debuted In 2022
An issue that bothDead Reckoning Part OneandThe Final Reckoninghad to face is that they were preceded by the 2022 Tom Cruise legacy sequelTop Gun: Maverick, which became a smash hit when it grossed $1.496 billion against a reported budget of $177 million. The movie, which was still an IP title but felt fresher because it came more than 30 years after the original installment,proved that Tom Cruise could be a viable lead in other franchises with even more high-octane premises, which may have taken some of the shine off of theMission: Impossiblemovies.
10Action Movies Have Been Underperforming In 2025
All 3 Action Titles In The Top 10 Are Disappointments
Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoninghas also arrived during a year that has been rough on the action genre. All three of the2025 action moviesin the year’s current worldwide box office Top 10 (which areCaptain America: Brave New World,The Final Reckoning, andThunderbolts*) have underperformed compared to their budgets. This issue spreads even further, as the new Jason Statham movieA Working Mancouldn’t compete with his previous David Ayer collaborationThe Beekeeper, Rami Malek’s revenge movieThe Amateurhad a lukewarm performance, andDen of Thieves 2: Panteragrossed considerably less than the original installment.
