Paramount delays Mission Impossible to 2025 amid actors strike

PARAMOUNT Pictures is delaying the release of several movies, including an instalment of its Mission: Impossible series, becoming the latest studio to reschedule films while Hollywood actors are on strike.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part Two will open in theatres on May 23, 2025, almost a year later than planned, the studio said on Monday (Oct 23). The horror picture A Quiet Place: Day One and an untitled animated SpongeBob SquarePants movie, are also being postponed.

The delay of the eighth title in the Mission: Impossible franchise, which stars Tom Cruise as secret agent Ethan Hunt, strips parent Paramount Global of an important box office and streaming title next year. It’s also trouble for theatres having to contend with a shrinking slate of big pictures in 2024.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, which was released in July, generated close to US$600 million in ticket sales worldwide.

Sony Pictures and Walt Disney have also delayed some movies during the strike by SAG-Aftra, the union representing about 160,000 actors.

The union is resuming negotiations with the Hollywood studios’ bargaining group on Tuesday, the two institutions said in an earlier statement.