Despite Their Rivalry, Tom Cruise & Christopher Nolan Have One Thing in Common
The movie industry heavyweights have the same mission.
This July is set to see a showdown between Tom Cruise and Christopher Nolan in movie theatres, perhaps the two biggest names in the movie industry today. Cruise's highly anticipated Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Open, premiering on 12 July, will be facing off against Nolan's Oppenheimer, set to open in theatres on 21 July.
For the moment, even before the premiers, Nolan seems to have secured a tactical win by reserving all the IMAX theatres for his film.
That's right; Universal has booked all the IMAX theatres in North America and other territories for three full weeks for the release of their new golden filmmaker's new motion picture. That means Mission: Impossible will get booted from all those theatres after only nine days. Naturally, Cruise isn't happy about it and is doing his best to negotiate a deal with IMAX theatres. However, most industry experts believe that even if Cruise fails to keep his new film playing in IMAX theatres, it still has a good chance of beating Oppenheimer at the box office.
As this clash of the titans unfolds, we can't help but notice that all the fuss and rivalry are leading to one outcome, and that's precisely what both legendary movie personalities have wanted all along people flocking to the movie theatres this summer. Indeed, Cruise and Nolan have more in common than you might realise. They are both on a mission to save the movie industry from the pervasive streaming culture.
As Top Gun: Maverick hit theatres, Cruise made sure to voice his opinion on streaming services. Not even the COVID pandemic would make him release his movie to one of those platforms, he declared at the Cannes premiere (via Variety).
‘That was not going to happen ever,’ the iconic actor stressed. ‘I make movies for the big screen.’
The star, hailed by Steven Spielberg as the saviour of movie theatres, continued with a plea to theatre owners.
‘I’ve spent a lot of time with theatre owners. The people that serve the popcorn, the ones who make this [happen],’ he said. ‘Please, I know what you’re going through. Just know we are making Mission: Impossible and Top Gun is coming out.’
While Nolan may have disrupted the big Mission premiere, he echoes Cruise's sentiment. Speaking to Indiewire a few years ago, the renowned director made his views on streaming giants, namely Netflix, clear.
‘Netflix has a bizarre aversion to supporting theatrical films,’ Nolan said. ‘They have this mindless policy of everything having to be simultaneously streamed and released, which is obviously an untenable model for theatrical presentation. So they’re not even getting in the game, and I think they’re missing a huge opportunity.’
It seems that despite their rivalry, Cruise and Nolan want the same thing. And no matter how things turn out this July, people will be heading to movie theatres in droves.