Tom Cruise has already been talking up a sixth instalment to the Mission: Impossible franchise and it’s easy to see why. This weekend saw Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation open impressively with a $56 million domestic haul and a spot at top of the US box office for its star to cling to. Those numbers put **Ghost Protocol **($29 million) and **Mission: Impossible III **($47 million) in the shade.
It shows that, despite rumours of his demise as a A-list force, Cruise still has pulling power with US audiences and vindicates the decision to yank the film out of its late-year slot and into a relatively quiet summer weekend.
If all that overtime by Christopher McQuarrie and co paid off, it was a different tale for Warner Bros. and its half-baked Vacation retread. Panned by critics, the comedy hauled in a disappointing $14.8 million, a chasm between first and second places wide enough for even Ethan Hunt to think twice about leaping it. Adam Sandler and Christ Columbus’ arcade invasion flick Pixels was the weekend’s other major casualty. Its $10.4 million left it languishing in fourth place like Donkey Kong with simian flu.
Ahead of it in third came Ant-Man with $12.6 million. Three weekends in and it’s accrued $132 million in America, a more than respectable figure without touching the surprising heights of its Marvel stablemate, Guardians Of The Galaxy.
Those yellow wee'un-delighters, Minions took fourth with $10.4 million while Amy Schumer/ Judd Apatow comedy Trainwreck boozed, partied and romanced to $9.7 million in sixth.
Jake Gyllenhaal boxing drama Southpaw, perhaps recipient of negative word of mouth, dropped to seventh with $7.5 million, with **Paper Towns **($4.6 million) and Inside Out ($4.5 million) taking eighth and ninth places. There was still life the old dinos as Jurassic World picked up $3.8 million to add to its colossal $1.5 billion global takings.
For the full weekend breakdown and all those fun analytics, head over to Box Office Mojo.