Paramount Reckons Delays For 'Mission: Impossible', 'A Quiet Place' and 'SpongeBob'
You know, instead of giving their actors the fair deal they’ve been seeking
Paramount would move its own mountains to shuffle its theatrical release schedule before meeting its talent to give them a fair contract. While we don’t yet know what Disney’s other dominos are following the dislodge of Deadpool 3 to a still-unconfirmed new date, it is indeed Paramount who was the next to make moves.
The eighth Mission: Impossible film, formerly subtitled Dead Reckoning Part Two has production unable to resume to meet its June 28, 2024 date, so the Tom Cruise-starrer is moving to familiar Memorial Day territory. Moving to May 23, 2025 allows a guaranteed three-week exclusive run on IMAX screens (compared to Part One’s single week before Oppenheimer) and the possibility of carrying the same momentum of Top Gun: Maverick, which had a massive $1.5 billion global box office run in the spot last year. With the Dead Reckoning Part Two subtitle removed it’s unknown whether Part One will be removed from the title of Dead Reckoning. This does follow both Avengers: Endgame and Beyond the Spider-Verse as having gained their own identities after originally being labeled second parts of Infinity War and Across the Spider-Verse respectively. It leaves behind New Line’s Kevin Costner passion project Horizon: An American Saga Chapter One and Sony’s Horrorscope, while joining up with an unannounced Disney film. A favorite spot for Disney, usually live action, it was The Bob’s Burgers Movie left to be ravaged by Maverick last year.
However, Paramount is still going to be present on the original weekend. They’re pushing the A Quiet Place spinoff A Quiet Place: Day One back from March 8 to that June 28 date. The prequel is directed by Michael Sarnoski and stars Lupita Nyong’o, Stranger Things’s Joseph Quinn, and Alex Wolff. Maintaining its IMAX screenings, it leaves behind Kung Fu Panda 4 and a face-off with Dune Part: Two that would have started on week 2.
Moving from a John Krasinski story to his latest directorial effort, IF, starring Ryan Reynolds is moving up, less significantly than Deadpool 3 did all the way from November. It’s just a week, from May 24 to May 17. There’s just an unannounced Universal movie there, away from a Memorial Day weekend that features Warner Bros. and Village Roadshow’s Mad Max spinoff, Furiosa, the animated Garfield movie from Sony, and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the first film in the storied franchise since Disney got Fox’s entertainment assets. And it’s not a reboot, but a continuation.
Meanwhile, the fourth (mainline) SpongeBob SquarePants movie that still doesn’t have a title was the former holder of the May 23, 2025 date. As a result, it has been sent to fend off against Avatar 3 on December 19. There has to be more to this. It’s got to be one of Disney’s moving pieces as they let the strike continues. There’s also a Warner Bros. movie there.
These moves have been reported with hours until the AMPTP returns to the negotiating table where SAG-AFTRA awaits, nearly two weeks after the former walked away.
Sources: Deadline