NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Mission accomplished… well, almost.
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation opened to an estimated $56 million at the U.S. box office over the weekend. This total was the second-best Mission: Impossible opening ever, just missing out on the $57.8 million of 2000’s Mission: Impossible II.
The Paramount film starring Tom Cruise was good enough to nab the third-best U.S. opening of the star’s career, coming in behind Mission: Impossible II and 2005’s War of the Worlds.
The spy thriller was also a hit internationally. It made $65 million abroad to bring its global total to $121 million. A good start for a film that cost Paramount $150 million.
“Tom Cruise is the very definition of movie star, but beyond that he is a tireless marketing machine,” said Paul Dergarabedian, a box office analyst for Rentrak. “He has essentially written the playbook on how to manifest the perfect combination of star-power based publicity along with producer-based business acumen.”
Coming in at a distant second was Warner Bros.’s Vacation which earned $14.8 million between Friday and Sunday.
The comedy starring Ed Helms is the fifth installment of the Vacation franchise. Since opening on Wednesday, it has made $21.1 million for Warner Bros. (which, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner).
Two big films about small characters, Universal’s Minions and Marvel’s Ant-Man, battled it out for third place. The $12.6 million of Ant-Man just edged out the $12.1 million of Minions.
And to round out the top five was Sony’s Pixels with $10.4 million. Box office sales for the Adam Sandler comedy dropped 57% from last week when it took first place.
As the summer box office season nears its end with next week’s Fantastic Four, Hollywood has a lot to be happy about. The 2015 summer box office is up 12.5% overall from last year.
