The sixth film in the franchise, Mission: Impossible – Fallout, had the biggest opening weekend so far in the series, and marked a big win at the box office for star Tom Cruise, giving him and studio Paramount Pictures one of their most successful premieres to date commercially and critically.
The sixth film in the blockbuster action franchise not only had the biggest opening weekend of any of the M:I films, but it also earned the best reviews of the vunch from critics and audiences alike. The $61.5 million the film raked in over the three-day weekend topped the previous franchise-topping debut of 2000’s Mission: Impossible II ($57.8 million) and also gave Cruise the second-biggest premiere of his career after 2005’s War of the Worlds ($64.8 million). The film, which has Cruise reprising his role as globe-hopping, death-defying special agent Ethan Hunt, also gave studio Paramount Pictures its biggest opening weekend since 2014’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($65.5 million).
But it wasn’t just the ticket sales that made Fallout a pretty big deal this weekend. The film also paired an impressive “A” grade from audiences on CinemaScore with an even more impressive 98-percent positive rating from professional review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
That’s the best critical performance of any film in the series to date by a significant margin, and suggests that Fallout could have a very lucrative run in theaters.
As for the rest of the weekend’s top ten films, the only other new release to make the list was animated feature Teen Titans Go! To The Movies, a feature-length film based on the Teen Titans Go! television series.
The film, which features cartoon versions of many popular DC Comics superheroes and villains, received decent reviews from critics and audiences, and the studio probably isn’t too disappointed with the $10.5 million the movie earned during its first weekend in theaters. It was never expected to be a big release, and the $10 million it cost to make means that it jas already covered its budget.
The rest of the weekend’s top films were all returning features.
One noteworthy aspect of the weekend box office was the $8.4 million earned by Ant-Man and the Wasp. While the film appears destined to end up in the bottom half of Marvel’s cinematic universe as far as box-office earnings, this weekend’s ticket sales pushed its domestic earnings to $183.1 million and moved it ahead of both the first Ant-Man ($180.2 million) and 2011’s Thor ($181 million) in the MCU .
This week, the new releases arriving in theaters include Disney’s live-action spin on Winnie the Pooh tales, Christopher Robin, as well as the raunchy comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me, starring Mila Kunis and Kate McKinnon.
