The ‘Mission: Impossible’ franchise is only gaining in popularity as the years go by. With an opening take of $61.5 million, the sixth movie in the series, ‘Fallout’ had the best opening so far at the weekend box office. This also marks Tom Cruise’s second-best opening of his career, falling short of ‘War of the Worlds” $64.8M opening in 2005. On the other hand, ‘War of the Worlds’ opened on Independence Day weekend, meaning that its opening was spread over six days. Not only is ‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ a financial success but it’s getting a great reaction with an incredible 97% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes and with audiences giving it an A CinemaScore, the best so far for an ‘M:I’ movie. There had been some question as to Cruise’s star power in the United States, especially after the splashy failure of ‘The Mummy‘ last year, but this– like ‘The Equalizer 2’ last week– cements that U.S. audiences will turn out for stars as long as they are in the right vehicle and audiences have embraced Cruise as Ethan Hunt in the lead of this franchise. This film is drawing more men than women, 55% versus 45% and mostly older viewers with 82% over the age of 25.
Cruise’s track record has rarely faltered overseas and the foreign audience tends to gravitate toward big action movies– and ‘M:I – Fallout’ delivers that in spades. Cruise broke his ankle performing a stunt in which he jumped from building to building. But the real draw appears to be a skydiving stunt in which Cruise resuscitates Henry Cavill’s character in mid-air. Cruise reportedly jumped from an airplane 106 times to get the take just right. With foreign dollars added in, ‘M:I – Fallout’ took in over $140M and the film won’t open in China until the end of August after the embargo on foreign films is lifted there.
Last week’s top two slipped and changed places, with female-skewing musical ‘Mama Mia! Here We Go Again’ staying at #2, earning $15M more. ‘The Equalizer 2’ dropped to #3 and took in $13.6M.
This week’s other new entry, ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ failed to take down the reigning animated champ ‘Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation’ which held the #4 spot with $13.2M. ‘Teen Titans GO!’ only earned an underwhelming $10.4M. Much like last year’s ‘LEGO Ninjago Movie’ and ‘My Little Pony: The Movie’, parents viewed this as a TV show that kids can watch on TV for free, so why pay money to see it in a theater? To make matters worse, unlike ‘SpongeBob Squarepants’, ‘Teen Titans GO!’ is not a show that appeals to adults on any level, so getting them to sit through an hour and a half of something they can barely tolerate for 10 minutes is another uphill battle.
(SPOILER ALERT: Unfortunately, ‘Teen Titans GO! To the Movies’ includes a tease to the return of the older ‘Teen Titans’ cartoon, which does have older fans, but with this movie basically tanking, the older ‘Titans’ may never resurface.)
TOP FIVE:
- Mission: Impossible – Fallout (Paramount/Skydance Media) – $60.1M
- Mama Mia! Here We Go Again (Universal) – $15M
- The Equalizer 2 (Sony) – $13.6M
- Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation (Sony) – $13.2M
- Teen Titans GO! To The Movies (Warner Brothers) – $10.4M
Next week, it’s possible that Disney’s live-action ‘Christopher Robin’ could do well, but it’s a bit late in the summer to release a family movie (see 2016’s August dud ‘Pete’s Dragon’). At any rate, it’s most likely that ‘M:I – Fallout’ will continue to rule.
Check back to see how things work out.
Source: Deadline
