LOS ANGELES -- Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation headed into last weekend with expectations of a $40 million opening in U.S. and Canadian theaters, but Paramount Pictures reported that its Tom Cruise film did even better, bringing in $55.5 million.
The film racked up $20.3 million in ticket sales Friday, and positive word of mouth propelled it through the weekend.
"We knew that we had a great movie," said Megan Colligan, Paramount's president of domestic marketing and distribution. "We made a decision at the end of January for this movie to open in the summer, but they were still shooting the movie way into spring. It was a Herculean effort to get this movie out."
The film, from Paramount and Skydance Productions, earned an A-minus grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 93 percent positive rating from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. About 62 percent of the audience was male, and 81 percent was 25 or older.
Rogue Nation logged the second biggest opening for the five films in the franchise, trailing only the $57.8 million opening for Mission: Impossible II in 2000. Rogue Nation also is Cruise's third best domestic opening ever, behind War of the Worlds in 2005 ($64.9 million) and Mission: Impossible II.
Colligan said a lot of the film's success also goes to director Christopher McQuarrie.
"While all the movies in the franchise share the same pace and have certain similarity and brand recognition, there's the flair and touch the director brings to it that makes it special," Colligan said.
Rogue Nation made an additional $65 million in 40 other countries, including Mexico, Britain, Australia and South Korea. It is scheduled to open in China on Sept. 8. The four previous installments of the franchise have combined ticket sales of more than $2 billion worldwide.
Meanwhile, the comedy Vacation, which rolled out in theaters July 28, fell slightly short of tracking expectations. It earned about $14.7 million Friday through Sunday, for a cumulative gross of $21 million since its release.
"We had hoped that we would open at a higher level, but I think we might get there, just at a longer play," said Jeff Goldstein, Warner Bros.' executive vice president and general sales manager. "There's still a lot of headroom left in the summer, particularly before college kids go back to school."
The film, released by Warner Bros.' New Line Cinema label, is a sort of reboot of 1983's National Lampoon's Vacation. Starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate, it was written and directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis, who also penned the popular summer 2011 comedy Horrible Bosses.
So far, the R-rated comedy has been playing better with audiences, who gave it a B on CinemaScore, than with critics. Vacation did particularly well in the South and Midwest, and top-grossing theaters were in Tulsa, Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Orlando, Fla.
"Clearly we knew there was brand equity with an older audience, but we were going after the younger, uninitiated audience," Goldstein said. "What was clear as the week went on was that the core younger audience really started to grow."
An estimated 53 percent of the audience was female, and 52 percent was younger than 35.
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
The top 20 movies at U.S. and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday (except Vacation, which opened July 28), followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per location, total gross and number of weeks in release, as compiled Monday by Rentrak:
Mission: Impossible -- Rogue Nation, Paramount, $55,520,089, 3,956 locations, $14,034 average, $55,520,089, one week.
Vacation, Warner Bros., $14,681,108, 3,411 locations, $4,304 average, $21,003,442, one week.
Ant-Man, Disney, $12,802,644, 3,322 locations, $3,854 average, $132,331,563, three weeks.
Minions, Universal, $12,387,375, 3,575 locations, $3,465 average, $287,578,650, four weeks.
Pixels, Columbia, $10,503,023, 3,723 locations, $2,821 average, $45,714,520, two weeks.
Trainwreck, Universal, $9,605,585, 2,960 locations, $3,245 average, $79,614,985, three weeks.
Southpaw, The Weinstein Co., $7,617,683, 2,772 locations, $2,748 average, $31,675,168, two weeks.
Paper Towns, 20th Century Fox, $4,637,894, 3,031 locations, $1,530 average, $23,854,333, two weeks.
Inside Out, Disney, $4,511,004, 1,904 locations, $2,369 average, $329,587,896, seven weeks.
Jurassic World, Universal, $3,901,400, 1,912 locations, $2,040 average, $631,601,030, eight weeks.
Mr. Holmes, Roadside Attractions, $2,354,393, 901 locations, $2,613 average, $10,325,772, three weeks.
Terminator Genisys, Paramount, $943,192, 736 locations, $1,282 average, $87,693,413, five weeks.
Magic Mike XXL, Warner Bros., $645,617, 565 locations, $1,143 average, $64,761,407, five weeks.
Irrational Man, Sony Pictures Classics, $496,966, 135 locations, $3,681 average, $1,134,297, three weeks.
Ted 2, Universal, $494,900, 505 locations, $980 average, $80,538,470, six weeks.
Amy, A24 Films, $438,032, 245 locations, $1,788 average, $6,429,544, five weeks.
Spy, 20th Century Fox, $413,402, 375 locations, $1,102 average, $108,872,889, nine weeks.
The Gallows, Warner Bros., $352,044, 363 locations, $970 average, $22,202,489, four weeks.
The Vatican Tapes, Lionsgate, $321,464, 427 locations, $753 average, $1,527,837, two weeks.
Mad Max: Fury Road, Warner Bros., $302,317, 302 locations, $1,001 average, $152,169,645, 12 weeks.
MovieStyle on 08/07/2015