Forget Barbie vs. Oppenheimer. The biggest rivalry of the summer is Tom Cruise vs. Oppenheimer. The actor is reportedly none too pleased that Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One will have a limited run in some IMAX theaters before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer comes along and hogs ALL the IMAX theaters.
Puck reports that Cruise “has been complaining loudly to Paramount executives and others about the IMAX situation… Mission 7 has booked most of the IMAX screens for the week of the film’s July 12 opening, but then on July 21 comes Universal’s Oppenheimer, which has locked in all the IMAX screens in North America and other territories for three full weeks.”
Oppenheimer was shot using IMAX cameras, and Nolan told the Associated Press that the “best possible experience” to see it in theaters is the IMAX 70mm film presentations (although there aren’t many of those across the country). Then again, Top Gun: Maverick “saved Hollywood’s ass,” as Steven Spielberg put it, so you can somewhat understand Cruise’s annoyance.
He’s been furiously showing the film to exhibitors in an effort to convince them to switch their plans from Oppenheimer or Barbie, which Warners scheduled opposite the Nolan film on July 21 as a middle-finger to Universal after it stole Nolan during the HBO Max day-and-date debacle. (Oppenheimer has not screened for exhibitors yet; I’m not sure about Barbie.) And Cruise is even personally calling around to exhibition and studio executives, per multiple sources.
Here’s an idea: give all the IMAX theaters to Barbie. Matter solved.
(Via Puck)