Winnie-the-Pooh can’t stop ‘Mission Impossible’

NEW YORK - Tom Cruise sped past Winnie-the-Pooh at the box office to lead all films for the second straight week with an estimated $35 million in ticket sales for “Mission Impossible - Fallout.”

The success of Paramount Pictures’ sixth, stunt-filled “Mission: Impossible” installment, along with muted enthusiasm for the Walt Disney Co.’s “Christopher Robin,” made for a seldom-seen result: A Disney movie debuting in second place.

In a year where the studio has already notched three $1 billion films worldwide (“Black Panther,” “Avengers: Infinity War” and, as of this week, “Incredibles 2”), the more modest Winnie-the-Pooh live-action revival opened with a relatively ho-hum $25 million.

Made for an estimated $75 million, Marc Forster’s “Christopher Robin” stars Ewan McGregor as a grown-up Christopher Robin reunited with the beloved characters of the Hundred Acre Wood: Pooh, Tigger, Piglet and the rest.

Cathleen Taff, head of distribution for Disney, said there’s room for non-tentpole releases in the Disney slate.

“It’s one of our smaller films and it’s really focused on character and emotion,” said Taff. “We’re happy with where it’s at and we think it’s got some runway being one of the only family options going forward.”

Taff confirmed that “Christopher Robin” has been denied a release in China, locking the release out from the world’s second largest film market. While China provides no reason for the films it doesn’t select for its theaters, government sensors have recently been blocking images of Winnie-the-Pooh after bloggers began using him to parody Chinese president Xi Jinping.

The late-summer success of “Mission: Impossible” - which has made $124.5 million thus far along with $205 million internationally - is helping solidify a comeback summer for Hollywood.

The summer box office is up 10.6 percent from last year’s record-low season, according to comScore, and year-to-date ticket sales are up 8 percent.

“As we head into what is almost always the slowest month at the summer box office, we have some nice momentum going,” said Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst for comScore. “With a 10.6 percent increase over the summer last year, we’re going to maintain a solid advantage when we get to the end of the month.” AP