Oh! Mission: Impossible 5 gets an earlier release date!
Tom Cruise will be back in theaters as Ethan Hunt sooner than expected.
Paramount and Skydance Productions have moved up the release of Mission: Impossible 5 from Christmas Day of this year to July 31, 2015 — the same weekend used to launch Guardians of the Galaxy, proving that August can be a lucrative corridor for event films.
Since MI5 will be completed earlier than expected, the studio decided to distance the film from J.J. Abrams’ Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which rolls out in theaters Dec. 18. (Abrams, who directed Cruise in Mission: Impossible III, is a producer on MI5.)
MI5 also gets out of the way of MGM and Sony’s James Bond sequel Spectre, which opens Nov. 6, according to insiders.
In its new home, the latest installment in the Mission: Impossible franchise will go up against Alcon and Warner Bros.’ Point Break redux, as well as Southpaw, starring Jake Gyllenhaal. Christopher McQuarrie, who teamed with Cruise on Paramount’s Jack Reacher, directs MI5. The last film, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, released in December 2011, earned nearly $650 million globally, a franchise best.
