4 Aug – It's no Mission Impossible for Tom Cruise to lead a successful franchise, as proven by his latest movie that opened last weekend. "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation" debuted at first place at the U.S. weekend box office, grossing a whopping USD55.5 million, which outperformed the USD12.7 million opening collection of the previous instalment "Mission: Impossible Ghost Protocol". The action involving Ethan Hunt (Cruise) and his IMF team going against assassins as highly trained as they are (with the mission of wiping IMF off the planet) has generated enough interest and positive reviews that the fifth movie in the franchise has now collected USD120.5 million worldwide against its USD150 million budget.
Opening at number two last weekend was Ed Helms and Christina Applegate-starrer, "Vacation". The fifth feature and seventh overall instalment in the "National Lampoon's Vacation" movie series only grossed USD14.6 million domestically, based on Box Office Mojo stats. Like most R-rated movies that opened in the U.S. this year, the movie received generally negative review and lackluster welcome at the cinemas. So far, critically and commercially successful R-rated movies of 2015 include Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck" and Melissa McCarthy's "Spy". Meanwhile, Paul Rudd-starrer "Marvel's Ant-Man" was down two places to number three last weekend, adding another USD12.8 million to its lifetime gross. Worldwide, the superhero movie currently has a collection of USD291.8 million.
"Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation" also accomplished its mission to conquer the number one spot on Malaysia's weekend box office. The newly released movie pushed "Marvel's Ant-Man" down to number two. Meanwhile, another new movie, "Sakalakala Vallavan Appatakkar", managed to open at number three. Similarly in Singapore, "Mission: Impossible Rogue Nation" infiltrated number one on its opening weekend while "Marvel's Ant-Man" managed to nab the second place after falling one spot. New SG50 movie, "1965", which tells the engaging and touching stories of immigrants and natives during the time leading up to the independence of Singapore, opened at third place. Movies that also opened in Malaysia last weekend were "CCTV", "Detective Conan: Sunflowers Of Inferno", "Orange Mittai" and "Drishyam". Singapore's new movies for last weekend include "Orange Mittai", "Sakalakala Vallavan Appatakkar", "Idu Enna Maayam", "Drishyam" and "Madame Bovary".
Box office takings for the weekend just gone (30 July - 02 August 2015)