Agent Ethan Hunt is back with the Mission: Impossible franchise. The sixth installment, with an ageing but evergreen Tom Cruise continuing as lead, is titled Fallout. Rotten Tomatoes, the American review-aggregation website for film and TV, has given it a 96% Fresh rating. Based on the opinions of hundreds of film critics, when at least 60 % of these reviews are positive, a red tomato shows its Fresh status. Films that get less than 60 % positive reviews are Rotten and come with a green splat. That means, Mission: Impossible – Fallout is being hailed by critics everywhere as the best film of the franchise even before its worldwide release this Friday.

The action spy film, which is fast, sleek and fun, is said to have a watertight screenplay not unlike 2008’s Batman film The Dark Knight which went down as Christopher Nolan’s best directorial till date. Fallout lives up to the ‘impossible’ part of its name by setting yet another high mark for insane set pieces in a franchise full of them, says Rotten Tomatoes. Audiences and trade pundits in India are excited. The film is expected to open strongly at the Box Office. The Mission: Impossible films have a loyal fan base here. Their action appeals to the masses in the heartland. And the Hindi dubbed versions fare well in UP, Bihar, Rajasthan and Gujarat. MI: Fallout has got to compete at the Box Office only against Sanjay Dutt’s Saheb Biwi Aur Gangster 3, another franchise by Bollywood’s Tigmanshu Dhulia, and that film is not looking good.

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The fifth edition of the MI series, Rogue Nation that released in August 2015, got off to a reasonable start in India despite coming on the heels of Hindi blockbusters like Baahubali: The Beginning, Bajrangi Bhaijaan and Drishyam that all released successfully in July. It made Rs. 6.50 crore on opening day. A 36% jump over the figure collected by the earlier MI film, Ghost Protocol of 2011. Keeping this in mind and hoping Mission: Impossible – Fallout will attract the same kind of audiences as Rogue Nation did, guesstimates are that the sixth edition of Agent Ethan Hawke’s daring-do feats will fetch it opening day figures in double digits. Adding to this likelihood are factors including the hike in ticket rates, GST benefit and the anticipation of the first MI release in 3D.

Fallout will be looking to surpass the opening day high of Rs. 11.25 crore set by Deadpool 2 this May and emerge the second biggest Hollywood opener of 2018 after Avengers: Infinity War of April rang the Box Office tills with Rs 31.30 crore. However, it must be taken into account that Mission: Impossible – Fallout already faces, well, a fallout in India among Tom Cruise fans because the actor’s last few releases (Jack Reacher: Never Go Back of 2016, American Made and The Mummy of 2017) flopped here. Despite being a brand, The Mummy raked in merely Rs. 13 crore over the weekend in India. But the actor, who turned 56 this month, is expected to get back in the game with the new MI film.

 After Western critics gave it a thumbs-up, MI: Fallout is sure to get positive word of mouth in India, and trade sources are doing the math to figure out what its lifetime collection is likely to be. Rogue Nation of 2015, which had an opening weekend collection of Rs. 25 crore, closed its run in India at Rs. 48 crore. Whereas four years earlier, Ghost Protocol in 2011 made Rs. 17 crore only on its opening weekend but closed at Rs. 47 crore. Trade gurus say the world of mouth for Rogue Nation was a mixed bag and that accounted for the low closing. Now, experts are willing to bet that Mission: Impossible – Fallout will have an opening weekend in the range of Rs. 35 to 40 crore and do lifetime business of between Rs. 96 crore and 110 crore. Come in, Tom Cruise…