Next 'Mission: Impossible' delayed a year as actors strike drags on

The eighth instalment of the Mission: Impossible franchise has been postponed a year, signalling a new wave of release schedule juggling for Hollywood studios as the actors strike surpasses three months of work stoppage.

Paramount Pictures on Monday shifted the release date of the next Mission: Impossible from June 28 to May 23, 2025. Production on the follow-up to Christopher McQuarrie's Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One was paused in July while Tom Cruise and company embarked on an international promotion blitz for Dead Reckoning. (The sequel had been titled Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part Two but is now simply listed currently as Mission: Impossible.)

Dead Reckoning ultimately grossed $567.5 million worldwide, falling shy of 2018 instalment Fallout ($791.7 million globally) and the heady highs of Cruise's summer 2022 blockbuster Top Gun: Maverick ($1.5 billion). The 163-minute-long action thriller, drew some of the best reviews of the 27-year-old movie franchise, but was quickly eclipsed by the box-office juggernauts of Barbie and Oppenheimer.

As Hollywood's labour turmoil has continued, it's increasingly upended release plans not just for movies this fall that want to wait until their stars can promote them ( like Dune: Part Two, postponed to March), but some of next year's top big-screen attractions.

A string of Marvel movies have previously shifted back, as did the third Venom film. Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse, has been delayed indefinitely after being dated for March 2024.

Paramount also announced Monday that A Quiet Place: Day One, a prequel to the post-apocalyptic horror series starring Lupita Nyong’o, will have its release pushed from March to when Dead Reckoning had been scheduled to open, on June 28.

Negotiations between the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the studios are scheduled to resume Tuesday.

• Entertainment