Tom Cruise’s ‘MI: Rogue Nation’ stands cold, grosses only $65M overseas

“Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation” is much like its predecessors; it’s a spy flick with mayhem, elaborate action sequences and fairly high body count. Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Ferguson also star.

Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, the 56-million- dollar opening weekend ticket sale is the second largest opening weekend take of the five “Mission: Impossible” series, which kicked off with “Mission: Impossible” in 1996.

“They have delivered a film that has such energy and excitement”, said Rob Moore, Pararmount’s vice chair.

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. It had been on track for an opening weekend of $40-million, according to recent studio estimates.

It was also Cruise’s best-ever showing offshore movie.

Comedy sequel “Vacation”, starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, opened at No. 2 with $14.8 million for a total of $21.1 million since opening Wednesday.

Still, the R-rated Vacation is a low-risk entry for New Line, given its USD31 million budget.

Last week’s first-placed film, Marvel action flick Ant-Man starring Paul Rudd as a superhero, fell to third with $12.6 million after three weeks in theaters.

In fourth was animated comedy “Minions”, featuring three yellow mischief-making creatures from the film’s first instalment “Despicable Me“, bringing in US$12.2 million.

A24’s The End of the Tour, which stars Jason Segel as David Foster Wallace and Jesse Eisenberg as the reporter tasked with profiling the author, launched impressively with Dollars 126,459 in four locations.