Mission: Impossible shoots to No. 1 at box office

LOS ANGELES — After six movies, 22 years, countless bruises and a broken ankle, Tom Cruise’s death-defying “Mission: Impossible” stunts continue to pay off at the box office.

“Mission: Impossible — Fallout” easily took the No. 1 spot on the domestic charts this weekend. Paramount Pictures estimates that it earned US $61.5 million from 4,386 North American theatres.

Not accounting for inflation, it’s a best for the longrunning franchise, which has grossed $2.8 billion worldwide, and one of Cruise’s biggest too (just shy of “War of the Worlds’” $64.9 million debut in 2005). Internationally, the film earned $92 million from 36 markets which is also a franchise best.

Directed by Christopher McQuarrie, “Fallout” has scored some of the best reviews in the series and has been in the news cycle for almost a year. Talk about the film started early, in August of 2017, when Cruise broke his ankle performing a stunt in London with video to prove it.

“Paramount was strategically perfect in their marketing and publicity game,” said comScore senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian. “They showed how important a star’s presence is in marketing the movie early on. Tom Cruise broke his ankle and they made that into a positive for the movie — it fed the Tom Cruise ‘Mission: Impossible’ mystique.”

Second place went to “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again,” which fell 57 per cent in its second weekend in theatres, to earn $15 million. It was a much steeper decline than the first film, which dropped only 36 per cent between its first and second weekends.

Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer 2” slid to third with $14 million in Weekend 2, and “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” took fourth with $12.3 million.