Mission Impossible 8 box office prediction: Tom Cruise's franchise-best opening will lose to a kids' film with no stars

Mission Impossible 8 box office prediction: Tom Cruise's action thriller is getting beat by a Disney film on its opening weekend.

Updated on: May 22, 2025, 11:41:49 IST

By Abhimanyu Mathur

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Mission Impossible 8 box office prediction: Six days after it was released in select markets like India, Japan, Korea, and Australia-New Zealand, the Tom Cruise-starrer Mission Impossible - The Dead Reckoning is set to hit the screens globally. The film, meant to be the final Mission Impossible film featuring Tom Cruise, is heavily anticipated and if the early trade buzz is to be believed, the hype will translate into box office receipts too. Yet, Ethan Hunt will find that it has met its match at the ticket window - in the form of an adorable, blue alien.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning is slated to release on May 23.

Mission Impossible 8 vs Lilo & Stitch

Early projections for Mission Impossible 8 show that the film is expected to have a healthy opening. Variety puts its four-day opening weekend gross in North America at $75-85 million. Add to it an estimated $125 million overseas collection, and the trade magazine predicts a handsome $200 million opening for MI 8. Deadline puts the figure at $210 million. Either way, it would be the best opening in the history of the Mission Impossible series and a much-needed boost after part 7's sub-par box office returns.

Yet, the other big release of Memorial Day weekend is set to steal Tom Cruise's thunder. Disney's Lilo & Stitch live-action remake is expected to leave Mission Impossible 8 in the dust with a projected $275 million debut. Even conservative estimates by Variety put its opening weekend haul at $225 million, higher than not just MI 8 but also other blockbusters like Moana 2. The two films will likely fall short of the Memorial Weekend record of $306 million set by Fast & Furious 6 back in 2013.

Tom Cruise's Lilo & Stitch connection

Lilo & Stitch is the live-action remake of the 2002 animated hit of the same title. Interestingly, the original film had also clashed with a Tom Cruise-starrer at the box office - Steven Spielberg's Minority Report. The two films released on June 21, 2002, and Minority Report just about edged ahead, earning $35.6 million domestically as opposed to Lilo & Stitch's $35.3 million. This time, the remake will flip the script, it seems. Directed by Dean Fleischer Camp, Lilo & Stitch stars Maia Kealoha in her film debut as Lilo Pelekai, with original Lilo & Stitch writer-director Chris Sanders reprising his voice role as Stitch.

Mission Impossible - The Final Reckoning is directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Apart from Tom Cruise, the film stars Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Easi Morales, Pom Klementieff, and Angela Bassett. Both films release on May 23.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Abhimanyu Mathur
Abhimanyu Mathur is Deputy Editor, Entertainment at Hindustan Times. With almost 15 years of experience in writing about everything from films and TV shows to cricket matches and elections, he inhales and exhales pop culture and news. Currently, he watches movies and TV shows and talks to celebrities for a living, while occasionally writing about them as well. A journalism graduate of Delhi College of Arts and Commerce, Delhi University, Abhimanyu began his career with Hindustan Times at the age of 20, swapping classrooms for newsrooms at an early age. He began his journey in the early days of digital journalism, later switching to the madness of print journalism. Work has led him to far off places like Japan and Jordan, as well as to the interiors of Haryana and the Indo-Pak border. He dabbled in city reporting in places like Meerut, Gurgaon, and Delhi, covered the Olympics and Cricket World Cups, before finding his calling in entertainment and lifestyle during the pandemic. A Rotten Tomatoes Certified Film Critic, he is equally at home covering stories on ground as he is interviewing celebrities and studios, and sometimes prefers to shepherd teams in delivering traffic through the day. Even as his role has evolved from reporter to supervisor over the years, his first love remains writing (and of late, talking on camera). With a good understanding of cinema and its trends, and a keen eye for detail, he continues to spark conversations around showbiz for readers around the world.Read More

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