Big budget spy caper Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation surpassed expectations to open in top spot at the US box office this weekend with an impressive $56m, just short of a record bow for the fifth instalment in the two-decade-old saga inspired by Bruce Geller’s 1960s TV show.
As far as the film series goes, only John Woo’s Mission: Impossible II debuted to higher figures, taking $57.8m in 2000. Brad Bird’s Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol, which is widely considered to have revived audiences’ interest in the saga, made just $29m on its first weekend on wide-release on its way to a series-best $694m worldwide four years ago.
Rogue Nation sees Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his colleagues battling to take down a sinister organisation named The Syndicate while trying to avoid being swept up in a CIA campaign to wipe out the Impossible Missions Force. Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Ving Rhames return from previous instalments, while Rebecca Ferguson, Sean Harris and Alec Baldwin make their series debuts.
Christopher McQuarrie’s film has been well-received by critics and boasts a 93% “fresh” rating on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, making it one of the year’s best-reviewed blockbusters. Studio Paramount has now confirmed a sixth instalment is heading into production.
Outside the US, where 53-year-old Cruise is a bigger star, the film did even better. It opened to $121m globally despite not having bowed in the planet’s second and third largest box office territories, China and Japan. The UK led the way with $8.7m.
There was less positive news for Vacation, a successor to the much-loved 1983 Chevy Chase comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation and its many sequels, which opened in second place with a disappointing $14.8m. The film sees The Hangover’s Ed Helms as Rusty Griswold, the grown-up son of Chase’s hapless Clark who attempts a last-minute family cross-country excursion to infamous theme park Walley World with his wife Debbie (Christina Applegate) and their two sons. Critics have not been kind to the new version, which features cameos from Chase and Beverly D’Angelo as the original Griswolds.
The top five was rounded out by Marvel’s Ant-Man, with another $12.6m in third place for a three-week total of $132.1m; animated sequel Minions, with another $12.1m in fourth for a four-week total of $287.3m; and Adam Sandler CGI romp Pixels, with $10.4m in fifth for a two-week total of $45.6m. Down in ninth spot, acclaimed Pixar animation Inside Out crossed the $600m mark worldwide after posting another $4.5m in North America this time out.
There were no other new films in the top 10 but James Ponsoldt’s The End of the Tour, starring Jason Segel as the late writer David Foster Wallace, did well on limited release. The Sundance hit, also starring Jesse Eisenberg, scored $126,459 from four cinemas in New York and Los Angeles for a decent location average of $31,615.
US box office chart, 31 July-2 August
1. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation: $56m - NEW
2. Vacation: $14.8m - NEW
3. Ant-Man: $12.6m, $132.1m
4. Minions: $12.1m, $287.3m
5. Pixels: $10.4m, $45.6m
6. Trainwreck: $9.6m, $79.7m
7. Southpaw: $7.5m, $31.5m
8. Paper Towns: $4.6m, $23.8m
9. Inside Out: $4.5m, $329.5m
10. Jurassic World: $3.7m, $631.4m
