Mission: Impossible - Fallout Debuts with Franchise Best, $61.5M Opening
by Brad Brevet
July 29, 2018


This weekend saw Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Fallout top the weekend box office with the franchise's largest three-day opening as well as star Tom Cruise's second largest opening of his career.

Meanwhile, Warner Bros.'s animated feature Teen Titans Go! To the Movies struggled and fell short of expectations. Overall, the weekend was up 6% compared to last weekend and up 8% compared to the same weekend last year.







With an estimated $61.5 million, Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Fallout fell a bit shy of Mojo's pre-weekend expectations, but still managed to deliver the franchise's largest three-day opening, topping the $57.8 million opening for Mission: Impossible II back in 2000.

The opening also represents the second largest debut for Tom Cruise after the $64.8 million debut for War of the Worlds in 2005 and for Paramount this is the studio's largest opening since 2014's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ($65.5m).

Given the film's position as the last major blockbuster of summer 2018 and the positive reaction from both audiences and critics, Fallout should exhibit strong legs looking ahead.




Fallout not only carried the best reviews of the franchise (97% on RottenTomatoes and an 86 on Metacritic), but opening day audiences gave the film a franchise-best "A" CinemaScore.

Internationally, the last two Mission films delivered nearly $700 million globally and Fallout is already looking to top those figures after debuting in 36 markets this weekend and delivering an estimated $92 million.

Paramount reports the performance as being 19% ahead of Rogue Nation making it the biggest opening for the franchise.







Universal's Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! dropped a hefty 57%, resulting in a second weekend, estimated at $15 million, pushing the film's domestic cume over $70 million.

It will be interesting to see where the film goes from here as this is a larger drop than anticipated, especially given the lack of competition among the film's target demographic.







Sony's The Equalizer 2 topped the box office last weekend, but, as expected, dropped heavily in its second weekend as it lost a large segment of its audience to the release of Mission: Impossible.

That said, like Mamma Mia!, the dip was larger than expected, dropping 61% for a second weekend totaling an estimated $14 million for a domestic cume coming up just shy of $65 million after ten days in release.

The first film dropped just 45% in its second weekend despite both Gone Girl and Annabelle opening over its second weekend.







Sony also landed in second with Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation, which brought in an estimated $12.3 million for a domestic cume just shy of $120 million as it begins its third week in release.







Rounding out the top five is Warner Bros.'s animated feature Teen Titans Go! To the Movies, which was expected to finish in the mid-teens, but could only manage $10.5 million over its debut weekend.

The DC Comics adaptation, which is based on the television series "Teen Titans Go!", carries a reported budget of just $10 million, which softens the film's disappointing performance a little, especially when you compare it to a film such as Sherlock Gnomes, which debuted with just $10.6 million earlier this year, but carried a budget nearly six times the size of Teen Titans.

Internationally, Teen Titans opened in just eight smaller markets, bringing in an estimated $1 million.







Elsewhere in the top ten, Disney and Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp brought in an estimated $8.4 million, pushing the film's domestic cume to $183.2 million.

The result pushes the film over Ant-Man ($180.2m) and Thor ($181m) to become the 16th largest release in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.







Disney also occupied the seventh slot at the weekend box office with Pixar's Incredibles 2, which has now grossed nearly $575 million domestically and has a worldwide cume nearing $1 billion.

The film will soon become the 36th film to ever reach $1 billion worldwide and it won't be stopping there as it will open in Japan and Spain next weekend followed by debuts in Italy and Germany in September.







Outside the top ten, A24's Eighth Grade expanded into 158 theaters (+125) and delivered a strong $1.3 million for a $8,339 per theater average. The film will expand nationwide next weekend.

Right behind Eighth Grade is Lionsgate's Blindspotting, which took in an estimated $1.3 million after expanding to 532 locations (+509) for a domestic cume that now totals $1.79 million.







In limited release, Well Go's Detective Dee: The Four Heavenly Kings opened in 31 theaters with an estimated $132,000 ($4,285 PTA); Sony Classics debuted Puzzle in five locations where it brought in an estimated $63,364 ($12,673 PTA); Greenwich's documentary Scotty and the Secret History of Hollywood opened in Los Angeles' Arclight Cinemas with an estimated $30,941; and Music Box's The Captain brought in $8,279 from one theater.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4421&p=.htm









July 27-29, 2018 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout $61,500,000
2. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! $15,000,000 / $70,425,525
3. The Equalizer 2 $14,000,000 / $64,231,345
4. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation $12,305,000 / $119,228,501
5. Teen Titans Go! To the Movies $10,510,000
6. Ant-Man and the Wasp $8,400,000 / $183,124,127
7. Incredibles 2 $7,157,000 / $572,780,648
8. Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom $6,775,000 / $397,555,500
9. Skyscraper $5,400,000 / $59,152,760
10. The First Purge $2,230,000 / $65,485,875

Mission: Impossible Tops Christopher Robin for Weekend #1; Black Panther Reaches $700M
by Brad Brevet
August 5, 2018


August 2017 saw the worst grosses for the eighth month of the year in twenty years and the writing was on the wall very early with the disappointing debut of The Dark Tower to begin the month.

While this weekend's crop of new releases didn't exactly light the box office on fire, with Disney's Christopher Robin debuting below expectations, the weekend's top twelve titles still finished 15% ahead of the the same weekend last year and featured a strong carryover weekend from Paramount's Mission: Impossible - Fallout.







With an estimated $35 million, Mission: Impossible - Fallout finished atop the weekend box office for a second weekend in a row as the film's domestic cume now stands just shy of $125 million after ten days in release.

The film's 42.8% second weekend drop is the second best sophomore effort in the franchise behind Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol, which isn't quite an apples-to-apples comparison considering it kicked things off with a limited debut over the holiday season in 2011.

Internationally, Fallout brought in an estimated $76 million from 56 markets, including 20 new openings. The film's international cume is now $205 million, 21% ahead of Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation for the same group of markets.







Landing in the runner-up position is Disney's Christopher Robin, falling short of expectations, delivering an estimated $25 million from 3,602 locations. While this is an improvement over the $21.5 million debut for 2016's Pete's Dragon, it's not a strong start for the film, though with little competition over the coming weeks and an "A" CinemaScore from opening day audiences it could hope for some decent legs.

Internationally, Christopher Robin debuted in 18 markets, estimated at 15% of the overseas marketplace, where the film brought in an estimated $4.8 million.







Lionsgate's The Spy Who Dumped Me delivered an estimated $12.35 million for a third place finish. The performance is just below the studio's expectations. Looking ahead, the film can be compared to Hot Pursuit's Mother's Day debut in 2015. The $35 million production debuted with $13.9 million and finished with a domestic run just shy of $35 million.

The Spy Who Dumped carries a reported budget of $40 million, of which more than half was covered by foreign sales, and received a "B" CinemaScore from opening day audiences, an improvement over Hot Pursuit's "C+".







Fourth place belonged to Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again!, which brought in an estimated $9 million, pushing the film's domestic cume over $91 million as it begins its third week in release.

Internationally, the film added another $19.3 million this weekend as it opened in seven new markets, pushing its overseas cume to $139.2 million for a global tally now topping $230 million.







Rounding out the top five is Sony's The Equalizer 2, which dropped just 37% for an estimated $8.8 million weekend and a domestic cume that now stands just shy of $80 million.

The film is playing in just 11 markets internationally right now with a debut in Spain set for next weekend.







Outside the top five, it isn't until eighth position that we find Fox's new release The Darkest Minds. The YA adaptation debuted in 3,127 theaters and brought in a dismal $5.8 million, which ranks as the 11th worst opening all-time for a film opening in 3,000+ locations.

Things weren't much better internationally for Darkest Minds where the $34 million production debuted in 37 markets and brought in an estimated $4.1 million led by Mexico with just over $1 million.







Outside the top ten we first come to A24's Eighth Grade, which expanded nationwide into 1,084 theaters (+926) and brought in an estimated $2.87 million.

The film's domestic cume now stands at $6.58 million.







Just below that is Quality Flix's release of Death of a Nation. The Dinesh D'Souza documentary brought in an estimated $2.3 million from 1,005 locations.

The performance, while within industry expectations, is a softer debut when compared to the wide releases for D'Souza's previous docs — Hillary's America ($3.96m wide release); America ($2.7m wide release); 2016 Obama's America ($6.5m wide release).







Additionally, BH Tilt abandoned Unfriended: Dark Web in its second weekend as the film dropped a massive 85.7% after losing 1,339 theaters.

The film's sophomore drop is the third worst ever.







In limited release, Well Go's Along with the Gods: The Last 49 Days brought in an estimated $329,000 from 48 locations ($6,854 PTA); A24's Never Goin' Back delivered $10,044 from two theaters ($5,022 PTA); and FilmRise's The Miseducation of Cameron Post delivered a chart-topping $26,500 per theater average with an estimated $53,000 from its debut at the Landmark 57 and Quad Theater in New York.







Finally, Disney and Marvel's Black Panther joins Star Wars: The Force Awakens ($936.6m) and Avatar ($760.5m) as the third film to ever top $700 million at the domestic box office. The film did so as it entered its 25th weekend in release.

Black Panther is the first 2018 release to remain in theaters that long as theatrical windows continue to shrink. In both 2017 and 2016 five films remained in theaters for 25 weeks or longer whereas in 2014 and 2013, 11 and 13 films reached that milestone or longer respectively.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/news/?id=4423&p=.htm









August 3-5, 2018 Weekend Studio Estimates:


1. Mission: Impossible - Fallout $35,000,000 / $124,487,371
2. Christopher Robin $25,003,000
3. The Spy Who Dumped Me $12,350,000
4. Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again! $9,090,000 / $91,335,550
5. The Equalizer 2 $8,830,000 / $79,886,265
6. Hotel Transylvania 3: Summer Vacation $8,200,000 / $136,455,881
7. Ant-Man and the Wasp $6,188,000 / $195,469,435
8. The Darkest Minds $5,800,000
9. Incredibles 2 $5,009,000 / $583,141,290
10. Teen Titans Go! To The Movies $4,860,000 / $20,784,557