Box Office: Americans finally punish Tom Cruise for being crazy

Not much firepower from 'Mission'

By Scott Bowles, USA TODAY
Many moviegoers, it turns out, chose not to accept this mission.
Mission: Impossible III, Tom Cruise's latest installment of the superspy franchise, fell millions of dollars short of analysts' expectations this weekend. It took in $48 million, according to studio estimates from box-office tracker Nielsen EDI.

BY THE NUMBERS: See the weekend's top 10 films

Though the debut made the film an easy No. 1 — and virtually assures Cruise of his 15th film to reach the blockbuster mark of $100 million —Mission was expected to take in $55 million to $70 million.

"This was a franchise that already had some viewer fatigue," says Brandon Gray of Box Office Mojo. "This opening doesn't do much to revive it."

Some analysts wondered if the movie publicity and headlines about Cruise's personal life — from his Scientology faith to his baby with Katie Holmes to his public dust-up with Brooke Shields over antidepressants — would make audiences weary of the star.

Gray disputes the theory, saying instead that Paramount Pictures may have waited too long in releasing the latest episode. The last Mission came in 2000 and took in $57.8 million in its first three days.

"Six years is a long time to wait, particularly when the last film wasn't that memorable," Gray says. M:I:2, directed by John Woo, was largely panned by critics for depending too much on action rather than story and character development.

But this installment received largely positive reviews, with 72% of critics giving it a thumbs up, according to the survey site rottentomatoes.com.

Rob Moore, Paramount's president of worldwide marketing and distribution, acknowledges that the six-year hiatus "meant that today's teenagers probably didn't see the last one. We had to essentially launch a new franchise."

Moore says that the studio is looking to the movie to perform similarly to last year's Batman Begins, which helped revive a franchise that had been dormant for eight years. That movie opened at $48.7 million and took in $205.3 million total.

Still, M:I:III ranks fourth among the past five movies that kicked off summer, the movie year's biggest season:

• 2005's Kingdom of Heaven opened at $19.6 million.

• 2004's Van Helsing, $51.7 million.

• 2003's X2: X-Men United, $85.6 million.

• 2002's Spider-Man, $114.8 million.

Kingdom of Heaven launched the worst summer opening weekend since 1999. This past weekend easily improved, with the top 10 movies 24% over the same weekend last year.

Part of the reason: Robin Williams' comedy RV dropped just 32% from its debut to take second place with $11.1 million. The PG-rated film is playing well in the heartland.

The horror film An American Haunting ($6.4 million) and Stick It ($5.5 million) followed.