Tom Cruise likes scaling high things, so he’s no doubt happy to see Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation maintain its place at the very top of the US box office charts for a second weekend. The fifth instalment of the spy action franchise took in $29.4 million, according to studio estimates.
Given some weak wide-opening competition (more about that in a moment), Ethan Hunt and the rest of the IMF team can now count more than $108.6 million in their domestic coffers, with the worldwide haul standing at $173.6 million. The move from an end of the year slot to this late summer berth is increasingly looking like a smart move by Paramount, which will be looking to get the next one gearing up as soon as it can.
As for Fox’s second attempt at The Fantastic Four, it was less "flame on!" and more flame out. The troubled superhero movie, which was plagued by rumours of tension on set and scarred by dreadful reviews, stumbled into second place with a disappointing $26.2 million in the States. That makes it the lowest domestic opening for characters based on Marvel comics since **Ghost Rider: The Spirit Of Vengeance **back in 2012. And that at least had the advantage of a relatively low budget. Fantastic Four’s cost hasn’t been officially announced (as is usual), but is rumoured to be in the $120 million range, not counting millions more spent on advertising. It’s far from good news for Fox, which had already dated a sequel and was considering possibilities for crossovers with the **X-Men **movies. Back to the drawing board? Or push on regardless? We’ll find out soon enough…
Joel Edgerton had a much better weekend, watching his directorial debut **The Gift **perform well. The psychological thriller, in which he stars alongside Rebecca Hall and Jason Bateman, received great reviews and scored with audiences, earned $12 million for third, a healthy early return on a $5 million budget and another success for the Blumhouse team and fledgling studio STX Entertainment.
Warner Bros.’ new take on Vacation, which was savaged by critics and arrived second last weekend, fell to fourth with $9.1 million. It has now made $37.3 million in the US so far, a long way from the heights of R-rated stablemates such as the Hangover films. In fifth place, **Ant-Man **continued to do good business, earning $7.8 million for a $147.4 million total. It’s an interesting comparison to make that Marvel can succeed with a seemingly obscure, tough-to-translate property while others can’t make one of the comic book company’s most famous super teams fly.
Minions continued to succeed, adding $7.4 million for a $302.7 million figure to date. With $912.5 million worldwide so far, the film has overtaken the original Despicable Me in terms of grosses and is snapping at the heels of Despicable Me 2, while also providing yet another big film for Universal, which is having its best year ever. Ricki And The Flash, despite boasting the star power of Meryl Streep, opened in fewer cinemas as more of an indie entry, and earned $7 million in seventh.
Trainwreck slipped to eighth with $6.3 million, while Pixels slumped to ninth on $5.4 million. Boxing drama Southpaw was 10th with $4.76 million and while we don’t usually venture outside the top 10 in these roundups, we’d be remiss in mentioning Shaun The Sheep. The Aardman ‘toon appeared to underperform in 11th with $4 million, though given its status as a pickup by Lionsgate, it’s actually not a bad opening given the current competition.
To see Ethan Hunt take out the Fantastic Four in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.