Widescreen: How you can accept Cruise's 'Mission' three days early
Tom Cruise's "Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One" opens Wednesday, July 12, but that actually means that showtimes start around 2 p.m. the previous day - just like Thursday night screenings ahead of Friday openings.
But if you can't wait until Tuesday (and believe me, I get it), there are "Early Access Fan Event" screenings across the suburbs on Monday. Each of those 7 p.m. screenings will come with bonus content made specifically for the event, as well as a free movie poster and an IMF (Impossible Mission Force) logo pin. Go to missionimpossible.com for locations and tickets.
But what if you can't wait until Monday? Walmart is hosting special screenings at 3 p.m. Sunday at select theaters, and tickets can only be accessed through a partnership with the Atom ticket service. See locations and buy tickets at atomtickets.com.
More penny-pinching
This column has felt like a chronicle of bad-faith business practices lately, and here comes another one: Xfinity took away its subscribers' premium access to the Peacock streaming service, which is included with your cable subscription, on June 26.
You, like me, may have thought: "No big deal, I'll just have to sit through commercials." But no - large swaths of content are now behind a $4.99 monthly paywall. That includes the recent Universal theatrical features that go exclusively to Peacock, meaning the powers that be at Comcast couldn't bear to let their Xfinity subscribers watch the impending streaming debuts of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and "Fast X" at no extra cost.
Is $4.99 a month a relatively small price to pay for a streaming service? Yes. Does your Xfinity cable bill need to get even higher? NOPE.
'Barbenheimer'
The odd convergence of Greta Gerwig's candy-colored toy adaptation "Barbie" and Christopher Nolan's atom-bomb epic "Oppenheimer" appears to be paying off for both movies.
Both films open Friday, July 21, in what must have first been conceived as the most massive counterprogramming gambit in Hollywood history. As we get closer to release, the "Barbenheimer" jokes and memes continue to flood social media streams - and the irony once inherent in those posts keeps disappearing.
People seem to be genuinely excited about the prospect of seeing both movies on opening weekend, and the latest tracking data backs it up: The Hollywood Reporter on June 29 said "Barbie" was expected to open in the $70 million to $80 million range, and "Oppenheimer" around $40 million. Those numbers are about double what this seasoned moviegoer would have guessed when the summer movie season began in May with a $118 million start for "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3."
If you plan to do this, "Oppenheimer" has to be first, right? Margot Robbie will hopefully give us a perfectly fun refresher after watching Cillian Murphy become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
• Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who thought the new Indiana Jones was a pretty bumpy ride. Thankfully, they nailed the takeoff and landing.