Tom Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation dominated the US box office this weekend taking an impressive US$56 million at 3,956 locations.
The Paramount movie generated US$20.3 million at the US box office on Friday, setting an opening day mark for the franchise — and signaling that Cruise still carries plenty of star power. Saturday’s total hit US$19.7 million.
The launch of Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation outperformed forecasts by a significant margin. It had been on track for an opening weekend of US$40 million, according to recent studio estimates.
Photo: EPA
It is the third-largest opening for Cruise, following the US$64.9 million launch for 2004’s War of the Worlds and US$57.8 million for 2000’s Mission: Impossible 2.
Rogue Nation also opened in about 40 percent of international markets with US$65 million, led by South Korea’s US$17 million.
The fifth installment in the series, written and directed by Chris McQuarrie, finds Cruise facing off against a squad of special agents known as “the Syndicate.” Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Ferguson also star.
“They have delivered a film that has such energy and excitement,” Pararmount vice chairmain Rob Moore said.
Rogue Nation, which carries a US$150 million price tag, is one of the rare studio tentpoles that was moved forward rather than backward. The original plan had been to open on Christmas Day, but Moore said that Cruise had asked during filming — which started in August last year — if the movie could be moved up to avoid competing directly against the next Star Wars movie, which opens on Dec. 18, and the new James Bond movie Spectre, which launches on Nov. 6.
The first four Mission: Impossible films grossed more than US$2 billion. In 2011, Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol pulled in US$209 million in the US and US$485 million internationally.
Rogue Nation took in more than triple the Friday-to-Sunday total of New Line’s Vacation reboot, which pulled in US$14.9 million in 3,411 locations in the US. The comedy, which launched on Wednesday, has grossed US$21.2 million in five days — below recent forecasts of US$30 million.
Still, the R-rated Vacation is a low-risk entry for New Line, given its US$31 million budget. Ed Helms, Christina Applegate, Leslie Mann and Chris Hemsworth star. It generated an “A-” Cinemascore among audiences aged below 35.
Disney’s third weekend of Marvel outing Ant-Man led the holdovers with US$12.6 million at 3,322 sites in the US for a US$132.1 million total. Universal’s fourth weekend of Minions followed with US$12.2 million at 3,575 locations in the US to lift its 24-day total to US$287.3 million.
A24’s The End of the Tour, which stars Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as the reporter tasked with profiling the author, launched impressively with US$126,459 in four US locations.
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