Only $48 million in opening weekend box office returns for Mission: Impossible III (M:I3)? Could this be the beginning of the end of it’s Star’s movie careeer?

At just under under $150 million to make, this third installment in the life of spy Ethan Hunt, could prove very costly to a studio that has already laid out millions of dollars in pre-release damage control to soften the public’s ever increasing distain of it’s star, one Mr. Tom Cruise.

Bizarre behavior, tabloid stories, personal appearances that he’d obviously rather not be at, then the spin story of how his childhood has effected him, and his father was abusive…it all may be too little, too late.

Or, could it have nothing to do with the bizarre, Mr. Cruise, and it’s the beginning of the end of the summer Blockbuster as we know it?

I’d rather believe the first scenerio…