'Mission: Impossible - Fallout' has the biggest opening weekend ever for the franchise with $61.5 million

• "Mission: Impossible - Fallout" wins the weekend box office with $61.5 million.
• That's the biggest opening ever for the "M:I" franchise.
• It's the second-biggest opening ever for franchise star Tom Cruise.

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"Mission: Impossible -Fallout" marks the sixth installment in the franchise from Paramount, and it's turning out to be the most successful yet.

The movie won the weekend box office handedly with an estimated $61.5 million take, according to The Hollywood Reporter. That's the biggest opening ever for the franchise, which spans all the way back to the Brian De Palma-directed 1996 first "M:I." Boy, have we come a long way.

Though the franchise's star, Tom Cruise, has always been a thrill seeker, since 2011's "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol" - where he climbed the tallest building in the world, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai - the movies have become a destination to see Cruise pull off some of the most insane stunts ever put on screen, and "Fallout" was no different.

Cruise has proven once again that though the conventional wisdom is that movie stars are not a box office draw anymore, it does not apply to him. Especially when it comes to "M:I" movies.

Teaming up for a second-straight time with director Christopher McQuarrie, Cruise heads a thrilling two-and-a-half-hours with stunts that include a skydive, motorcycle chase through Paris, helicopter chase, and lots of running (of course). That all led to a franchise best 97% on Rotten Tomatoes for the movie and the second-best opening for Cruise (just behind the $64.8 million take for 2005's "War of the Worlds").

With the movie's strong box office overseas as well, it's looking at around a $140 million worldwide opening, another franchise best. And with a China release coming in August, Paramount is looking for a strong earner the rest of the summer.

The studio, which always is trailing most of the major studios in box office due to its lack of IPs, will be able to stick its chest out around Hollywood this week.

It's also a good time to be a movie star at the moment. With both Denzel Washington leading the domestic box office win for "The Equalizer 2" and Dwayne Johnson the face of global winner "Skyscraper" last weekend, Cruise's "Fallout" shows that, at least at the moment, audiences want to go and see these stars do some action-packed thrills.