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Tom Cruise is the gift that keeps on giving. The actor has cultivated a solid reputation throughout his career, and his status as an action superstar has earned him recognition. Cruise deserves kudos for delivering the highly entertaining Top Gun sequel this summer. But that isn’t his only big-screen juggernaut. He also stands atop a $3.6 billion Mission: Impossible movie empire that will only grow in the next couple of years.

Tom Cruise has made 8 ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies

Tom Cruise Mission Impossible movies
Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in a scene from 1996’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ | Murray Close/Getty Images

The Mission: Impossible film series centers on Tom Cruise’s character, Ethan Hunt, a tough-as-nails agent in the Impossible Missions Force (IMF). Some of the movies have seen Hunt try to clear his name, while others have him working in tandem with his agency to save the world.

Of the franchise’s eight films, six have premiered, and two are set for release in the next couple of years. The first, Mission: Impossible, debuted in 1996 and features Hunt on the run after a frame job.

Mission: Impossible 2 came out four years later, with Hunt trying to stop a pandemic.

In 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, Hunt finds love but surrenders to protect his fiancé after a run-in with an arms dealer puts her in danger.

2011’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol sees Hunt and his team blamed for a bombing at the Kremlin. He tracks the responsible party and stops a global nuclear war.

Premiering in 2015, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation follows Hunt as he exposes and brings down the Syndicate.

Mission: Impossible — Fallout debuted in 2018. In this installment, Hunt deals with a branch of the Syndicate called the Apostles, who threaten to end the world. The CIA becomes doubtful of Hunt’s motives and loyalties.

The last two films in the franchise are Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One and Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two, scheduled for 2023 and 2024 release dates.

Mission: Impossible is one of the most lucrative film franchises based on a TV show, having been adapted from the eponymous CBS series that aired from 1966 to 1973.

Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ movies have cleaned up at the box office

The first installment in Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible movie series had an $80 million budget and grossed $457 million at the box office. The second film saw even better numbers, making $549 million worldwide against a $120 million budget. Mission: Impossible III dropped in box office revenue but was still successful, earning $399 million on a $150 million budget.

Ghost Protocol revived the series with a $694 million worldwide box office gross against a $145 million budget. Rogue Nation earned slightly less, making $688 million on a $150 million budget.

But Fallout remains the most lucrative film in the franchise, raking in close to a billion dollars. It earned $791 million on a $178 million budget.

Dead Reckoning Part One is set to have the biggest budget in the series, with The Numbers reporting that the production budget is $290 million.

The franchise has grossed $3.57 billion worldwide, making Mission: Impossible the 16th highest-grossing film series.

The franchise recently dropped a teaser trailer for ‘Dead Reckoning Part One’

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In 2019, news broke that Dead Reckoning Part One and Part Two were in development with Christopher McQuarrie, who wrote and directed the previous two films.

Part One was supposed to drop on July 23, 2021, but the pandemic pushed the release date to July 14, 2023. Similarly, Part Two was scheduled for an August 5, 2022, release but got delayed to 2023 and then to 2024.

Last month, Paramount Pictures dropped a teaser trailer for Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, showing what promises to be a roller coaster ride for audiences. The final two films are poised to be a farewell to Cruise’s character.

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