LOS ANGELES – The stakes may be high for Ethan Hunt and his team in Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation, but it was hardly impossible for the Tom Cruise pic to conquer the box office.
The fifth installment in the nearly 20-year-old film series has earned $56 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Opening weekend audiences were 62 per cent male and 81 per cent over the age of 25.
It’s the second-highest opening for a Mission film since Mission Impossible II took in $57.8 million in 2000.
The film from writer-director Christopher McQuarrie cost a reported $150 million to produce and should have no problem making up its budget, especially with overseas earnings.
Besides generating some of the best reviews in the series, Rogue Nation was bumped up on the release schedule from Christmas to summer somewhat last minute — even though they were still shooting the movie well into the spring.
BELOW: Watch the trailer for Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation
Meanwhile, Vacation went a bit off track. The $30 million film earned $14.9 million over the weekend and $21.2 million since opening Wednesday.
Starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, the film was imagined as a continuation of the 1983 road trip comedy National Lampoon’s Vacation when a now grown Rusty Griswold (Helms) takes his family to Walley World.
Critics were not kind to the raunchy comedy from first-time directors John Frances Daley and Jonathan Goldstein, and audiences as a whole didn’t seem too thrilled either.
Holdovers Ant-Man, Minions, and Pixels, rounded out the top five. While the year-to-date box office is still up 8.3 per cent, it will be down significantly for this weekend from last year when Guardians of the Galaxy opened to a stunning $94.3 million.
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