“Mission: Impossible – Fallout” Delivers Franchise Best Debut

By Kip Mooney • On • In Weekend Box Office Report Weekend Box Office Report 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT

July 27-29, 2018

(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 5

Mission: Impossible – Fallout  $61.5 million
Mamma Mia!
Here We Go Again		 $15.0 million
The Equalizer 2 $14.0 million
Hotel Transylvania 3:
Summer Vacation 		 $12.3 million
Teen Titans Go! To the Movies  $10.5 million

With its death-defying stunts and franchise-best reviews, Mission: Impossible – Fallout impressed audiences, delivering a massive $61.5 million. That's the best opening for the series ever, besting Mission: Impossible II's $57.8 million. Fallout also marks Tom Cruise's second-best debut ever, just below the $64.8 million for War of the Worlds. Pretty outstanding for an actor who's been as big a star as he has for as long as he has. Barring an insane drop next week, there's seemingly no reason this can't become the biggest entry to date, especially with little in the way of competition for the next two months.

Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again held onto second place, but with a pretty huge drop. Its predecessor held exceptionally well all through the remainder of the summer, outperforming some of the bigger sequels of 2008. But this installment slid 57 percent, which means its terrific debut may have been front loaded. The same goes for The Equalizer 2, which has fallen well behind the musical. Neither film may reach $100 million, performing worse than their last entries.

Hotel Transylvania 3 dropped to fourth. With kids going back to school this week (in some districts) and two other big animated movies competing – plus Disney's Christopher Robin next week – it's likely to end up as the lowest-grossing of the franchise. Still, it outperformed Teen Titans Go! To the Movies. Despite being one of the highest-rated cartoons on TV, the film managed a weak $10.5 million, well below expectations. Still, it was dirt cheap for a major animated release, costing a mere $10 million.

Outside the top 5:

  • This Weekend's Indie Champ: Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood, the salacious documentary about Hollywood pimp Scotty Bowers. Those interested in gossip about old stars flocked to its one screen in Los Angeles, giving it a whopping $30,941.
  • Sicario: Day of the Soldado finally passed its predecessor. It's now earned more than $48 million.
  • Well, Disney tried to give it a shot in the arm, but it looks like Black Panther will end its run just shy of $700 million. It's been stuck at $699 million since June 1, and even adding screens couldn't pull it over the line. No matter. It's still broken a bunch of records.

Next week:

The dog days begin, as none of the August releases should make much noise. Mission: Impossible – Fallout will easily repeat, with around $30 million. Christopher Robin will fare the best of the new releases, but only with around $20 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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