Tom Cruise’s latest Mission Impossible remained impossible to beat at the US box office as it retained its top spot for the second week in a row with $31.3 million.
According to studio estimates on Sunday, with a $134.1 million domestic total, Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol is the first $100 million hit with Cruise in the lead role since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III, Fox News reported.
The Paramount release led a solid New Year’s weekend as Hollywood managed fair business to end a sluggish year on a more promising note for 2012.
Domestic revenues closed out at $10.22 billion for 2011, down 3.4% from 2010’s, according to box-office tracker Hollywood.com.
Still, movie admissions were down sharply for the second year in a row. Factoring in higher ticket prices, domestic attendance slipped to 1.28 billion in 2011, off 4.2% from 2010 admissions and the smallest audiences Hollywood has had since 1995.
The rest of the weekend’s top-three remained unchanged. Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows from Warner Bros, finished second again with $22.1 million, raising its domestic total to $132.1 million.
The 20th Century Fox family sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked was still at the third spot with $18.3 million to lift its haul to $94.6 million.
In its first full weekend, Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic War Horse came in fourth with $16.9 million, pushing its domestic total to $43 million.
In its first full weekend, Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic War Horse came in fourth with $16.9 million, pushing its domestic total to $43 million.
David Fincher’s thriller The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo rounded off the top five with a revenue of $16.3 million.
The Sony release, which stars Daniel Craig and Rooney Mara, now stands at $57.1 million domestically.
The top 5 movies on the domestic box office were:
Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol – $31.3 million
Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows – $22.1 million
Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked – $18.3 million
War Horse – $16.9 million
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo – $16.3 million