Cruise's MI3 sets sail in rough seas

May 8, 2006, 2:51 GMT

Secret Agent Ethan Hunt (Cruise) comes face to to face with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer while trying to keep his identity secret in order to protect his girlfriend. Directed by the creator of Lost, J.J. Abrams and starring Tom Cruise, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ving Rhames, Laurence Fishburne, Billy Crudup, Michelle Monaghan, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Keri Russell, and Maggie Q. ...more

Los Angeles - Hollywood icon Tom Cruise's big summer action release, Mission Impossible III, fell short of expectations but still dominated North American box offices over the weekend, according to preliminary studio estimates.

The third installment in the movie franchise, based on a classic espionage television series, grossed 48 million dollars.

Last weekend's number-one film, RV starring Robin Williams, fell to a distant second with 11.1 million dollars in ticket sales from Friday through Sunday.

The release of MI3, as the much-anticipated movie has been widely nicknamed, marks the first of 2006's summer-season blockbusters. But the three-day opening was nearly 10 million dollars weaker than Mission Impossible II in May 2000.

The presence of freshly minted Oscar-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman as MI3's villain seemed to do little to build interest among moviegoers.

Sissy Spacek's An American Haunting, a gothic horror story co- starring Hollywood veteran Donald Sutherland, scared up 6.4 million dollars for third place.

The week's other significant new release, Hoot, barely got off the ground with a 3.4-million-dollar opening. Based on an ecology-themed novel for teenaged readers, the movie was ninth in the weekend box- office rankings.

© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur