Mission: Impossible takes top honors at this weekend’s box office, though it slightly under performed

As we all expected, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was the number one film at the box office this past weekend. Tom Cruise’s legendary action series went off to the races with an $80 million domestic five-day start with around $56.2 million coming from the weekend. While not a bad opening, that’s actually a bit under expectations. Many pundits foresaw a $90 million weekend.

Thankfully, the international gross has kicked into high gear. While The latest IMF mission couldn’t topple local films in China, it racked up an extra $25.9 million and helped propel the movie to a $155 million international gross. So far, Mission: Impossible has amassed $235 million and looks set to somehow overcome its ludicrous $290 million budget.

Elsewhere in the top 10, the sleeper hit of the summer Sound of Freedom took second place with an additional $25 million domestically this past weekend. It’s one of the rare films to actually increase in ticket sales for the second week (37%, in fact), though the controversy surrounding the film sounds more interesting than the film itself.

Insidious: The Red Door dropped down to third and nabbed another $13 million. The international gross has been rather kind to the small-scale horror film, with Southeast Asia, in particular, bringing in big numbers. Indiana Jones came in fourth, though $12 million more isn’t making much of a dent in that film’s budget. Somehow, Pixar’s Elemental has managed to hang on to fifth and has turned around its previously dire performance to become slightly successful with a global gross of $311.7 million.

Here is the rest of the top 10 for the weekend of June 14 – 16. All numbers are domestic:

1. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – $56.2 million
2. Sound of Freedom – $27 million
3. Insidious: The Red Door – $13 million
4. Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny – $12 million
5. Elemental – $8.7 million
6. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse – $6 million
7. Transformers: Rise of the Beasts – $3.4 million
8. No Hard Feelings – $3.3 million
9. Joy Ride – $2.5 million
10. The Little Mermaid – $2.3 million