Box office battles are back. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, it was common to find two or three productions fighting for the audience's attention. This time, during this month of June 2023, the studios that will clash in theaters are Warner Bros Discovery and Universal Pictures. They will do so through Barbie and Oppenheimer, respectively. In between? Paramount Pictures' Mission Impossible 7, starring Tom Cruise.
The situation is as follows: Barbie and Oppenheimer will be released on the same day, next June 21. Meanwhile, Mission Impossible 7 will hit theaters a week earlier, on the 13th. All this has ended up bothering Tom Cruise who, according to Puck, the performer "has complained loudly to Paramount executives and others about the IMAX screening situation, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations."
According to the aforementioned media outlet, Mission Impossible 7 booked the majority of IMAX theaters for the week of the film's release. So far, so good. But then they will be taken over by Universal's Oppenheimer starting June 21. This is explained by a detail: Universal had previously set aside these slots, while Paramount, due to the rescheduling of its film releases, lost the possibility. And this is not the end of the conflict. The problem could be related to Christopher Nolan's departure from Warner Brothers in 2021, which occurred after the director questioned some of the studio's strategies. Now, the filmmaker is with competitor Universal Pictures. That past conflict, coupled with the decision to release Barbie on the same day as Oppenheimer, suggests that this is a kind of revenge on Warner's part.
While 'Mission Impossible 7' will undoubtedly grab the public's attention, it won't do so as much as the competition.
