The Mission: Impossible movies are blockbuster spectacles, so it’s to be expected that it costs a lot of money to put each entry together. Mission: Impossible 7 was no exception, but new information has come to light revealing that the next adventure starring Tom Cruise’s Ethan Hunt was way more expensive to make than its predecessors. The reason for this inflated budget: the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to multiple “insiders” in the know about Mission: Impossible 7 who spoke with Variety, the movie cost $290 million to produce, tens of millions of dollars more than Paramount Pictures and Skydance Media expected to pour in. For comparison, 2018’s Mission: Impossible – Fallout cost $190 million, but that movie didn’t deal with the numerous obstacles presented by the coronavirus.
These insiders say that one of the main reasons Mission: Impossible 7 cost $100 million more than its predecessor is because although principal photography was originally supposed to begin in Venice, Italy in February 2020, production ended up stopping and starting seven different times. For instance, on the first day cameras were expected to roll, the Mission: Impossible 7 team was going to shoot an action sequence staged during the Carnival Venice, but that ended up being the same day that Northern Italy went into lockdown over COVID-19. The Mission: Impossible 7 cast and crew then moved to Rome, but had to pause filming there too when COVID cases started spiking.
It’s bad enough COVID-19 interfered with the actual process of making Mission: Impossible 7, particularly when it came to making plans to shut down streets/areas of major cities, only to have to have to scrap those plans and reschedule them. But during these periods when filming couldn’t be done, money also needed to be poured into keeping the cast and crew employed and housed. Throw in the expenses of transporting all necessary parties to half a dozen countries total (including the United Kingdom, Poland and the United Arab Emirates), as well as global supply chain issues, and it’s no wonder why the Mission: Impossible 7 budget skyrocketed to nearly $300 million.
As of last summer, Paramount Pictures was facing over $50 million in overages tied to Mission: Impossible 7 since Skydance had already thrown in all of its share of financial contributions, around $240 million. Paramount reportedly is hoping for this financial burden to be eased by its insurers, but that’s become complicated by litigation. Basically this is a messy situation all around, and while Mission: Impossible 7 certainly isn’t the only film production that’s had to deal with added expenses, it’s one of the more extreme examples.
As such, it’ll be even more important for Mission: Impossible 7 to perform well at the box office when it’s released next year. Assuming that COVID-19 isn’t as much of a concern by then, then it’s doubtful the Tom Cruise-led feature will have any trouble putting butts in seats domestically. That said, with the current tensions between the United States in China, there’s no guarantee Mission: Impossible 7 will get to play in the latter country, which has become an increasingly important territory for Hollywood movies.
In any case, Mission: Impossible 7 finally finished filming last September, with Mission: Impossible 8 gearing up to begin production in South Africa soon. Other familiar faces returning alongside Tom Cruise for this next installment include Ving Rhames, Rebecca Ferguson, Simon Pegg, Vanessa Kirby, Frederick Schmidt and Henry Czerny, and they’ll be joined by newcomers Hayley Atwell, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff, Shea Whigham, Rob Delaney, Charles Parnell, Indira Varma, Mark Gatiss and Cary Elwes. As with the last two Mission: Impossible movies, Christopher McQuarrie resumed writing and directing duties for 7 and 8.
Mission: Impossible 7 has been pushed back to July 14, 2023, and Mission: Impossible 8 will follow on June 28, 2024. Before then, you can see Tom Cruise reprising Pete Mitchell in Top Gun: Maverick, one of this year’s many upcoming movies.