It’s Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning day here in Cannes where the epic finale to the Tom Cruise-led franchise was just greeted with a 7½-minute ovation inside the Grand Théâtre Lumière. In fact, the clapping only stopped because the team moved to leave after the post-screening speeches.

And there was lots of applause and cheers during that screening.

“I’m just very grateful, very grateful for 30 years to be able to entertain you with this franchise,” Cruise told the crowd afterward. “Grateful for my friend [pointing to director Christopher McQuarrie] every step of the way — what you’ve done, how you’ve expanded it, how we just went beyond our expectations. Your absolute care, your talent. You’re an amazing human being. It’s been a real privilege, a real pleasure, and I look forward to making a bunch of other kinds of movies with you.”

Turning to the audience, he added, “We just want to thank you all. Thank you so much for everything, for allowing us to entertain you. It’s very special.”

Cruise returns to the Riviera following the highflying premiere of Top Gun: Maverick in 2022, during which French fighter jets buzzed the Palais in a stunning air show.

This time around, Cruise — who began a global tour with M:I8 in Tokyo this month — was alongside McQuarrie and cast members including Hayley Atwell, Simon Pegg, Hannah Waddingham, Esai Morales, Pom Klementieff and Greg Tarzan Davis.

The Paramount/Skydance actioner features Cruise as Ethan Hunt following the events of 2023’s Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning, which ended on a cliffhanger with the world threatened by a rogue and sentient AI known as The Entity. It grossed more than $570M worldwide.

In total, the previous seven movies in the nearly-30 year film series have generated over $4 billion globally.

Paramount begins overseas rollout of The Final Reckoning on May 21 with the domestic release set for May 23. McQuarrie produces alongside Cruise. David Ellison, Dana Goldberg, Don Granger and Chris Brock are executive producers.

Erik Pedersen contributed to this report.