‘Mission Impossible’ Might Be The Box Office’s Most Underrated Franchise

Mission Impossible 7—much like every other movie in Hollywood—has been plagued by the coronavirus pandemic. Filming was set to begin on Feb. 20, 2020, in Venice, before moving to Rome for a 30-day shoot. Obviously, that entire schedule was upended and the release date was pushed from July 23, 2021, to Nov. 19, 2021.

Shooting for Tom Cruise and the gang, however, is set to re-commence in September—which would easily put the seventh film in Hollywood’s most underrated franchise on track for that November date.

And when I say underrated, I don’t mean in terms of quality (although I’m a big fan of the series). No, the Mission Impossible franchise is, without a doubt, one of the most lucrative and profitable series to emerge from the film industry.

That’s right: the Mission Impossible series is much more profitable than many people realize—it’s more profitable than the 007 films, than the DC Extended Universe, than the Pirates of the Caribbean films. And the franchise isn’t much less profitable than the Transformers series or the Fast & Furious world or—here’s the big one–the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

While the Mission Impossible films might not dominate the headlines like many of those franchises do, the Tom Cruise films have (surprisingly) remained consistently profitable since the first franchise film released in 1996. Even as the budgets have increased to Marvel-esque territory, the Mission Impossible films have continued to churn out incredible numbers.

Take a look at these rankings for what are considered to be the top franchises in Hollywood. This list ranks each franchise by rate-of-return, which is a measure of how much of a return each franchise saw based on its budget. (Note: we won’t include animated franchises on this list.)

  1. Jurassic Park – 8.13x rate-of-return
  2. Twilight – 8.13 rate-of-return
  3. Indiana Jones – 6.98x rate-of-return
  4. Star Wars – 6.16x rate-of-return
  5. Harry Potter – 5.99x rate-of-return
  6. Hunger Games – 5.98 rate-of-return
  7. Lord of the Rings – 5.88x rate-of-return
  8. Marvel Cinematic Universe – 4.99x rate-of-return
  9. Fast & Furious – 4.88x rate-of-return
  10. Transformers – 4.47x rate-of-return
  11. Mission Impossible – 4.35x rate-of-return
  12. James Bond – 3.86x rate-of-return
  13. DC Extended Universe – 3.8x rate-of-return
  14. Pirates of the Caribbean – 3.55x rate-of-return
  15. X-Men – 3.53x rate-of-return
  16. Star Trek – 2.59x rate-of-return

In total, over the course of six films, the Mission Impossible franchise has churned out $3.578 billion at the worldwide box office on a budget of $823 million. On average, that means a Mission Impossible film sees a budget of $137.2 million and offers an average of $596.3 million as a return.

The first franchise film, Mission Impossible, really set the tone for the franchise. Although that movie produced the second-lowest results of the franchise with $457.7 million at the global box office, Mission Impossible accomplished those results on a $80 million budget. That’s a striking 5.72x rate-of-return, which is the best of the series.

Since, the franchise has produced more and more at the international box office as the series has gained popularity. After Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation—the fourth and fifth films of the franchise—neared the $700 million mark, the Tom Cruise series’ sixth film, Mission Impossible: Fallout, finally broke through that barrier. With $787.5 million at the worldwide box office, Fallout not only became the highest-grossing movie of the franchise, but also became one of the 100 highest grossing movies ever. Currently, Fallout is No. 94 on that all-time list.

Thanks to Tom Cruise’s star power, the series has enjoyed increasing international success. While Fallout’s $220.2 million domestic sum ranks 167th on the all-time U.S. box office list, the movie’s $567.3 million overseas cume ranks 68th.

And while the franchise’s later films weren’t as profitable as the first movie, those other films have still shown quite the return as well. Even Fallout, which had a franchise-high budget of $178 million, showed a 4.42x rate-of-return in 2018.

Here’s a quick breakdown of the rate-of-return for each Mission Impossible film:

  1. Mission Impossible – 5.72x rate-of-return
  2. Mission Impossible II – 4.58x rate-of-return
  3. Mission Impossible III – 2.66x rate-of-return
  4. Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol – 4.79x rate-of-return
  5. Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – 4.59x rate-of-return
  6. Mission Impossible: Fallout – 4.42x rate-of-return

While none of the franchise films have matched the success of Mission Impossible, the series has remained incredibly consistent throughout its run. The third film represents the only true dip in revenue. Meanwhile, the rest of the series has consistently shown a reliable, incredible return on investment—pretty impressive given the extreme highs and lows of many of Hollywood’s top franchises.

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