Muted greeting for MI: III
Muted greeting for MI: III
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Monday, 08, May 2006 06:44
Mission: Impossible III is a smash at the British box office but has failed to make a similar impact around the world, commentators have complained.
In particular its understated performance in the US and Canada has led experts to suggest that its failure to live up to the big bucks of Mission: Impossible II disappointed its studio, Paramount, as well as industry expectations.
Compared to the middle of the franchise's trilogy, which took $57.8 million, Tom Cruise's latest outing as Ethan Hunt only took $38 million in its opening week.
"Expectations were really high for this film," said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box-office tracker Exhibitor Relations.
"There's a lot to be said for how a star's public persona can affect a movie's box office."
Paramount's head of marketing, Rob Moore, told the BBC that he rejected suggestions that Cruise's decision to engage in globe-trotting publicising adventures instead of spending time with his newly-born child and wife, actress Katie Holmes, had affected the film.
"If people are writing about his personal life, then by definition, they're not writing about the movie," he said.
For a disappointing debut, Mission: Impossible III did well to recoup more than four times as much as its nearest rival in the US box office.