20 Declassified Facts About The Mission: Impossible Series
18. The First Film Broke Records With Its Release
Mission: Impossible was the first film to have a release of over 3,000 theaters in the U.S. The milestone represented a decades-long change to the way movies, especially summer blockbusters, did business.
In days gone by, popular films were more often likely to hang around for months and months, their audiences diminishing only slowly. Today, even the biggest blockbusters often see a 50% drop in earnings between their first and second week of release. Studios "front-load" a big new release, trying to get it onto as many screens as possible so that people see it before Internet piracy or bad word of mouth can turn them away.
This also means that blockbusters make their money faster, which explains why sequels get greenlit earlier, too.