Paramount Home Media Picks Dec. 15 As The Release Date For DVD And Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack Editions Of Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation

Paramount Home Media says “open the door!!!” on Dec. 15 for Tom Cruise’s latest box office smash, Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation.   On that date look for both DVD and Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack editions to be retail-ready.

The ARR is 137 days and domestic ticket sales were a robust $193.6 million.   This film franchise is a winner for Cruise and he can return as Ethan Hunt as many times as he wishes (figure 2018 for the next installment).

This is quite the year for important film franchises.   We had Avengers kicking off the summer hit parade on May 1, Mad Max made a triumph return on May 15, the dinosaurs scored big (once again) on June 12 with Jurassic World, for fans there is nothing like Arnold as the cyborg from the future in Terminator: Genisys (July 3) and bee do, bee do, bee do with The Minions the following week (July 10) and of course Mission: Impossible added a fifth chapter on July 31.   

That was just a sample of the summer fun … now comes Bond, Daniel Craig as James Bond/007 in Spectre on Nov. 6, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2 on Nov. 20 and the mega-monster film franchise of them all, Star Wars: The Force Awakens on Friday, Dec. 18 (countdown clocks are all ticking away).   

Mark 2015 as the year of the Hollywood film franchise — large and small.   Fans can catch Mission: Impossible: Rogue Nation, complete with Tom Cruise’s breath-taking stunt, on every device possible while they wait in line for Star Wars: The Force Awakens … the timing of the release is spot-on.

As to that much talked about “stunt,” there were no doubles in that takeoff sequence.   If the safety line snaps (which is, of course, digitally removed for the film), it’s goodbye Tom.  Can you imagine Stanley Kubrick shooting that sequence … “ahh, Tom, let’s do that one again, it wasn’t quite what I was looking for.”  “No, let’s do that one more time.”  “Tom, it’s not working for me, once again.”  Nightmares of Eyes Wide Shut (over a year of filming)!!!

Writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, who won the Oscar for his brilliant The Usual Suspects script, does a lot of smart things with this entry in the Mission: Impossible film series (very nice writing touches).   

And Cruise is relentlessly smart in knowing when to be the center of attention and when to let co-stars Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson have their moments.   Indeed, Simon Pegg as Benji seems the perfect sidekick to Cruise’s Ethan Hunt.  

This is a film that you can watch again and again and never get bored.  It flows, it moves and it is what every studio hopes for when the next installment of a film franchise is planned.

As to bonus goodies, they are all exclusive to the Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack edition.   Included are commentary with Tom Cruise and director/writer Christopher McQuarrie (he also wrote the scripts for Cruise’s Valkyrie, Jack Reacher and Edge of Tomorrow films) and seven production featurettes — “Lighting the Fuse,” “Cruise Control,” “Heroes,” “Cruising Altitude,” “Mission: Immersible,” “Sand Theft Auto” and “The Missions Continue.”