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Jan 30, 2024

Tom Cruise Mad 'MI7' Is Losing Imax Theaters to 'Oppenheimer': Report

Tom Cruise's upcoming

Tom Cruise's upcoming "Mission: Impossible" film is getting boxed out of Imax theaters by Christopher Nolan's "Oppenheimer" — and the star is "pretty pissed" about it, Matt Belloni reported for Puck.

Belloni wrote that Cruise has been "complaining loudly to Paramount executives and others about the Imax situation, per multiple sources familiar with the dialogue."

The seventh "Mission: Impossible" movie, titled "Dead Reckoning Part One," opens July 12 and has most Imax screens booked — until July 21, when Nolan's epic about J. Robert Oppenheimer, who oversaw the development of the first atomic bomb, premieres.

"Oppenheimer" will drop a (permit me) nuclear bomb on the market, snapping up ALL Imax screens for three weeks.

A committed proponent of Imax, Nolan shot "Oppenheimer" entirely on Imax cameras. In fact, Nolan has been shooting his movies on Imax cameras since 2008's "The Dark Knight."

"The sharpness and the clarity and the depth of the image is unparalleled," Nolan told the Associated Press last week. "The headline, for me, is by shooting on Imax 70mm film, you're really letting the screen disappear. You're getting a feeling of 3D without the glasses. You've got a huge screen and you're filling the peripheral vision of the audience. You're immersing them in the world of the film."

(Fun fact: The "Oppenheimer" prints are 11 miles long and weigh about 600 pounds, per the AP.)

Given Nolan's commitment to Imax and his stature as a filmmaker, it makes sense that "Oppenheimer" studio Universal was able to get an Imax exclusivity window, especially since Belloni reported the film secured its release date well before "MI7" got its earlier date.

But that doesn't seem to be much consolation to Cruise, who has reportedly gone on the offensive to secure other premium large-format, or PLF, theaters.

"Imax makes up just a little more than a third of the large-format screens in the US, so Cruise has lately shifted his efforts to securing as many of those non-Imax PLF screens as he can," Belloni reported, "even personally calling around to exhibition and studio executives, per multiple sources."

Reps for Paramount and Cruise did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Insider.

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