Tom Cruise’s

Tom Cruise’s ‘Mission: Impossible’ Throttles Box Office With $20 Million Friday

The fifth film is on pace for the biggest opening in the 19-year-old  franchise since "Mission Impossible II" debuted with $57 million in 2000, and will be the best for Cruise since 2005's "War of the Worlds" rolled out with $65 million in 2005. It's well ahead of the expectations of distributor Paramount Pictures, and reestablishes Cruise's action star credentials after three of his recent films -- "Edge of Tomorrow," "Jack Reacher" and "Oblivion" -- were more solid than spectacular at the box office

Directed and sripted by Christopher McQuarrie, "Rogue Nation" is riding a wave of strong reviews (93 percent positive on Rotten Tomatoes) and first-night moviegoers agreed, awarding it an "A-" CinemaScore. It's looking like a win for David Ellison's Skydance Productions, which produced the $150 million action film with Paramount, J.J. Abrams, Donald Burk and Don Granger. Jeremy Renner, Simon Pegg and Rebecca Ferguson co-star.

Warner Bros.' "Vacation," the weekend's other wide opener and an R-rated sequel to the 1983 comedy hit, was a distant second Friday with $4.4 million and heading for roughly $14 million for the weekend.  With Ed Helms and Christina Applegate driving the station wagon, it's on course for an underwhelming $20 million over the five days. It received a "B" CinemaScore, in line with the critics' lukewarm response.

Disney's Marvel superhero saga "Ant-Man" was third with $3.7 million Friday and heading for $13 million and Universal's "Minions" was on the way to a $12 million fourth week after Illumination Entertainment's animated hit put up $3.6 million Friday. That will push the domestic total for the Paul Rudd superhero saga past $130 million and its worldwide haul to nearly $250 million after three weeks. "Minions" is bearing down on $300 million domestically and crossed the $500 million mark overseas last week.

"Pixels," the PG-13 video game comedy starring Adam Sandler from Sony, was heading for fifth place and roughly $10 million in its second week, after taking in $3.5 million on Friday.

As things look now, Amy Schumer's "Trainwreck" will finish sixth and lift its domestic total to nearly $80 million with around $9.5 million in its third weekend.

Two second-week films, the Weinstein Company's Jake Gyllenhaal boxing drama "Southpaw" and Fox's John Green adaption "Paper Towns," were next and heading for $8 million and $4 million respectively.