Even Kanye West Can't Save Mission: Impossible III

Even a promotional appearance in Harlem with Kanye West wasn't enough to push Tom Cruise's star vehicle Mission: Impossible III over the top. [See Concrete Loop for more pics.]

Apparently Mission: Impossible III's $48 million opening weekend take in North American wasn't enough to fulfill the expectations for a blockbuster, though not everyone blames Tom Cruise's bizarre behavior:
Industry analyst Brandon Gray at boxofficemojo.com said he had expected the movie to kick off with about $70 million, which is where the last two opened after adjusting for ticket price inflation. "A truly successful sequel needs to open bigger than its predecessor," Gray said, noting that follow-up movies usually burn out more quickly.

He doubted that Cruise's unconventional antics in the past year -- such as jumping on talk show host Oprah Winfrey's couch and his strident support of Scientology -- played a role in the film's underperformance, and instead pointed the finger at a marketing campaign that made the movie seem less fun than its predecessors.

I haven't kept up with the details of M:i:III promotional activities but Tom certainly made a whirlwind tour of New York last week. Overall, it seems like people are talking more about whether Cruise's craziness negatively affected the movie than whether or not the movie's marketing activities were successful.

Chris Thilk takes a much closer look at M:i:III's marketing campaign and seems to be saying both that Cruise's behavior was a marketing issue and that the campaign just wasn't very exciting.

Update:
A bit more from the NY Times on the opening weekend and from advergirl on the "it looks like a bomb" but it sounds like a revamped theme song by Kanye West promotion.