The short and one-sided feud between Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan
One of them is among the biggest box office draws in cinema history with a string of hit movies to his name. The other is one of the most celebrated directors of his era, an Oscar-winner, and a Knight of the realm. Together, Tom Cruise and Sir Christopher Nolan would make a formidable team, but unfortunately, they spent the summer of 2023 beefing.
It was a busy period for both men. Cruise was starring in the seventh Mission: Impossible movie, Dead Reckoning – Part One, whilst Nolan was pushing his latest directorial effort, atomic biopic Oppenheimer. In the US, the two films released just nine days apart, so were in direct competition for the coveted box office buck. However, they were also at war in a different way – a much geekier way.
Both of these films are perfect for IMAX, the popular film format known for its high resolution and big pictures. Nolan is a noted IMAX fanatic, having been described by some as the “grandfather” of the technology thanks to his long-term championing of it. Anyone who considers themselves a true Nolan buff makes sure to see all of his new releases on as big a screen as possible, so when it was revealed that Dead Reckoning would also be releasing on IMAX, the battle was on. As it turns out, though, there wasn’t much of a fight.
This is the technical bit. Dead Reckoning was filmed on Sony CineAlta Venice IMAX, a camera that is “certified” for IMAX, but not native to the format. As a result, no scenes in the movie could be expanded to fit the traditional IMAX aspect ratio. Conversely, Nolan’s trusted cinematographer Hoyte van Hoytema used traditional 65mm IMAX cameras on Oppenheimer, which were perfect for projection on the biggest screen possible. This is the difference between “Filmed for IMAX” (Dead Reckoning) and “Shot with IMAX” (Oppenheimer), and it cost Cruise’s movie the advantage in the fight for cinephiles’ hearts.
Speaking to Forbes, Bruce Markoe, Head of Post-Production at the IMAX Corporation, expressed regret that the two movies were released so close together. “The dating of releases, especially on big movies, is a common problem,” he said. “We wanted to play both movies as much as we could because Mission is going to be a great picture in IMAX, but they [the studio], dated the movie right behind Oppenheimer.” Markoe revealed that the company reached out to the two studios involved in the movies to try and change their release dates, but neither of them would budge.
At the box office, Oppenheimer came out on top, grossing $977million against Dead Reckoning’s $571million. At the end of the day, though, neither of them did badly, as they both ended up in the ten highest-grossing films of the year. However, it was noted that Oppenheimer’s popularity did hurt Dead Reckoning’s run, especially with the ‘Barbenheimer’ phenomenon in full swing.
There may be few details, however it is known that Nolan’s next venture will be released on July 17th, 2026, and will star Tom Holland and Matt Damon. The eighth Mission: Impossible movie (which will surely be called Dead Reckoning Part Two) is currently set to drop on May 23rd, 2025, so round two of this conflict will have to wait.
