The JJ Abram's produced (but not directed) Mission: Impossible 4 remains on life support according to The Hollywood Reporter. Paramount has been waiting on the results of Tom Cruise's latest film, Knight and Day, to determine if they would green light the next film in the franchise. Well the domestic results are in and the film was basically a box office disaster in the states.
However, while Cruise's star may have fallen here, he remains popular overseas. Paramount has decided on a wait and see stance to see how the film does overall before making decision since worldwide sales could make a failure into a huge success. Recent billion dollar films of Avatar and Alice in Wonderland owe its huge grosses to overseas sales so the precedent has now been firmly established that a film doesn't necessarily have to make big buck in the States to succeed.
According to the article, Knight and Day needs to at least pass the $300 million worldwide mark before Paramount will give serious consideration to a green light. As it stands, Box Office Mojo is reporting a total of $103.3 million so that seems highly unlikely but then again the film still has not opened in all major markets.
Assuming Knight and Day doesn't achieve the box office requirements Paramount is seeking for an easy green light, which leaves three possibilities for the franchise. One, is to kill it (highly unlikely), two is to recast the lead role (a la James Bond), and last is a complete relaunch (like Spider-Man). At this point, I don't think a decision will be made until the relaunched Spider-Man is released just to see how audiences handle that option. Long story short, it will probably not be until after Star Trek 2 is released before M:I4 becomes a possibility. Another unanswered question is if the franchise continues without Cruise, will JJ Abrams remain on board as producer?
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