‘Mission: Impossible – Fallout’ Cruising Toward Record $60 Million Opening

By Dave McNary

LOS ANGELES (Variety.com) – Tom Cruise’s “Mission: Impossible – Fallout” is heading for record territory with a $60 million opening weekend in North America, early estimates showed Friday.

If the projections hold, Paramount’s sixth installment of the franchise will finish at the high end of recent forecasts — which had ranged from $50 million to $65 million at 4,386 sites. Friday’s total should hit around $23 million, including a record $6 million from previews.

2015’s “Rogue Nation” had a solid $55.5 million U.S. launch and wound up with $192 million domestically and $682 million worldwide. The highest Friday-Sunday opener in the franchise was 2000’s “Mission: Impossible 2” with $57.8 million.

“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” arrives as the best-reviewed title in the series with a stellar 98% on Rotten Tomatoes. Cruise’s Ethan Hunt and the Impossible Mission Force join with CIA assassin August Walker, played by Henry Cavill, to prevent a global nuclear attack.

Warner Bros.’ counter-programmer “” is heading for about $12 million at 3,188 locations, coming in at the lower end of forecasts, which had ranged between $13 million and $19 million. Based on the DC Comics TV series created by Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath, the animated family film follows the eponymous heroes attempting to convince a Hollywood director to make a movie about them.

“Mission: Impossible — Fallout” is helmed by Christopher McQuarrie, who returned to the director’s chair after “Rogue Nation.” He also wrote the script for “Fallout.” The movie is produced and financed by Paramount and partner Skydance Productions, headed by David Ellison. Cruise is a producer along with McQuarrie, J.J. Abrams and Jake Myers. Exec producers are Ellison, Dana Goldberg, and Don Granger.

Simon Pegg, Rebecca Ferguson, Ving Rhames, Alec Baldwin, Michelle Monaghan, and Sean Harris are reprising their roles from previous films, while Cavill and Vanessa Kirby are joining the cast. The franchise is based on the TV series that ran from 1966 to 1973.

Universal’s second weekend of “Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again” appears to be likely to finish in second place with about $16 million, lifting its 10-day total past $70 million. Sony’s second weekend of Denzel Washington’s “The Equalizer 2” should follow with about $14 million, just ahead of Sony’s third weekend of “Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation” with around $13 million.

Overall domestic summer moviegoing has jumped by 10.5% to $3.21 billion as of July 24, according to comScore, with Disney’s “Incredibles 2” leading the way with $564 million in 41 days. The 2018 total has reached $7.16 billion, up 7.6% above last year.