Although test screenings are said to be ‘through the roof’, the president of Paramount has said that the new Mission: Impossible is too long.
You don’t normally hear too much about the test screening process unless things have gone really poorly or really well, at which point reactions can tend to leak into the public domain. The latter seems to be the case with the upcoming Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One with reports emerging from several quarters that audiences are taking to it a very, very positive fashion.
It’s not that often that you hear the head of a studio discuss test screenings either, unless it’s to state how well things are going and Bob Bakish, Paramount president did just that. He stated that the film’s first test screening was very successful. However, it’s something else he added that lifted our eyebrows a little.
“I haven’t seen all of MI:7, said Bakish, “but I’ve seen a bunch of it. We actually just did the first test screening for an audience last week, and the audience lost their mind. And it’s still too long, they’ve got to cut it. But the movie is insane. It’s like a complete thrill ride. And Tom, he’s very good.”
According to Bakish, the film needs cutting as it’s too long. Whilst we’re not sure that’s a statement we’d be making publicly, we’re certain that we wouldn’t be stating it in the same sentence as admitting we haven’t seen the film in its entirety. Bakish may have seen ‘a bunch of it’ but we’re pretty sure that watching all of the film is a basic prerequisite for publicly demanding cuts.
The film is currently said to be around the three hour mark and so Paramount could be heading towards a face-off here. With the success of Top Gun: Maverick and (if true), those positive test screenings of Dead Reckoning, Cruise and McQuarrie might feel differently to the Paramount brass about the film’s length. We’d argue they’ve earned the right to stand their ground too but we’ll see for sure when the film releases in July.
—
Thank you for visiting! If you’d like to support our attempts to make a non-clickbaity movie website:
Follow Film Stories on Twitter here, and on Facebook here.
Buy our Film Stories and Film Junior print magazines here.
Become a Patron here.
