Mission: Impossible III revitalized the franchise, but it is also its least successful film at the box office, claiming only $398 million globally. For comparison, the first film, Mission: Impossible, made $457 million, and Mission: Impossible II made $546 million. The franchise is now the 16th highest-grossing film series of all time, led by star Tom Cruise. There have been six films dating back to 1996, with the latest entry Mission: Impossible - Fallout hauling in an impressive $791 million at the global box office. There are two more movies currently in development, with Mission: Impossible 7 and Mission: Impossible 8—potentially the franchise's last movie—currently slated for July 14, 2023, and June 28, 2024.
Mission: Impossible III had every reason to be a box office success. It was the first major blockbuster released in the summer of 2006, and its competition that weekend was relatively weak. It competed with movies like Hoot, An American Haunting, RV, and Stick It, and among them, only the Robin Williams comedy RV made more than $10 million that opening weekend. Mission: Impossible III also had the 4th largest release for its time, showing on over 4,000 screens. The film could have ridden on buzz stemming from Philip Seymour Hoffman's recent Oscar win and had by far the best reviews of the three films released at that point. So why did it fail?
Mission: Impossible III’s disappointing box office haul was due to many factors, including the poor reception to Mission: Impossible II and the six-year gap between installments. Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible II is arguably the worst of the franchise and is the only film to have received a Rotten Tomato from both critics and fans. Another reason the movie wasn't nearly as successful as its sequels is because the Mission: Impossible franchise didn't become popular in China until after its third installment. For comparison. Mission: Impossible III made $10 million in China, while Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol made $100 million. For the most recent entry, Mission: Impossible - Fallout, China accounted for 22% of its total box office.
However, the primary reason for Mission: Impossible III's poor box office is that public opinion of lead star Tom Cruise took a severe hit in 2005 due to a series of controversial events. His offscreen toxicity turned off a lot of film-goers from the actor and his movies at the time. Around 2005, Cruise’s involvement with the Church of Scientology became mainstream knowledge. He notably criticized actress Brooke Shields, claiming she was "irresponsible" for saying anti-depressants helped cure her postpartum depression following the birth of her daughter.
This was later brought up during his appearance on the Today Show. Tom Cruise got in a heated argument with interviewer Matt Lauer about his and Scientology’s views on psychiatry and antidepressants, claiming there was “no such thing as a chemical imbalance” and that antidepressants “only mask the problem.” He increasingly became more and more agitated and called the interviewer a “glib” for suggesting that antidepressants do work for some people. Many fans were understandably put off by his aggressive stance on the topic.
Tom Cruise has a history of being arrogant and hostile towards interviewers. While at the premiere for Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds, he had an interviewer and his camera crew arrested for playing a prank on him. When Tom Cruise walked up for an interview, the interviewer sprayed him with water with a rigged microphone. While it's understandable Cruise didn't find the prank particularly funny, many thought his reaction was unwarranted and elitist. While several factors played a part, the actor's public opinion was still at an all-time low when Mission: Impossible III was released in 2006 and played a hand in its box office struggles.
