Tom Cruise did finish in third place this weekend with “Edge of Tomorrow.” But at $29.1 million, “Edge” is his second best opening weekend in 8 years. How do you like that?
Since 2006, only “Oblivion” has given Cruise a better opening weekend with $37 million. “Jack Reacher,” “Knight and Day,” and “Valkryie” all opened in equivalent numbers of theaters on three day weekends and did far worse. Indeed, all three were kind of stinkers. None of those releases made close to $100 million domestically, finishing in the 70s and 80s.
“Mission: Impossible-Ghost Protocol” can’t be counted because it had a weird platform distribution when it opened. For its first week it played in only 425 theaters.
“Edge” will likely hit in the $80-$90 million finish zone. That would be on a par for all Cruise movies that weren’t a “Mission” sequel or Steven Spielberg’s 2005 “War of the Worlds,” his biggest hit ever with $235 million domestic.
The next step for Cruise is to try and find a “Jerry Maguire”-like romcom or something where he’s not repelling off a building. One of the nice parts of “Edge” is that his character is a bit of a coward who has to be persuaded into action. This little character point made the movie eminently more interesting.
