Box office: 'Mission: Impossible Fallout' Could Approach $60 Million in U.S Debut

 Overseas, the Tom Cruise action pic is likewise scoring strong numbers. It has also landed a release date in China, where it opens Aug. 31. 

 Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible — Fallout could scale as much as $60 million in its U.S. debut, possibly a franchise best and one of the best showings of Cruise's career, according to early Friday returns. 

 Paramount insiders say the movie is headed for $55 million-$60 million after grossing $6 million in Thursday-night previews. Rival studios are just as bullish, with some predicting it could even cross $60 million. 

 Fallout's preview performance bested the $4 million earned on Thursday night by the last installment, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation. For the full weekend, Rogue Nation grossed $55.5 million, the second-best launch of the series behind Mission: Impossible II ($57.8 million), not adjusted for inflation. 

 Overseas, the late-summer event film makes a major push timed to its U.S. launch, opening in its first 36 foreign markets for a projected global bow of $130 million-plus. On Thursday, it scored the biggest opening day when unfurling in its first raft of markets, grossing $11.1 million for an early foreign total of $15.1 million when including previews. And on Friday, Paramount announced the that the movie has landed a release date in China, where it opens Aug. 31. 

 Cruise, 56, once again performed a number of high-risk stunts, one of which resulted in the actor breaking his ankle in London. Production was suspended for eight weeks, with insurance covering much of the tens of millions in added costs. 

 Teen Titans is the first feature film adapted from the popular children's animated series on Cartoon Network. The story follows the titular heroes — including Beast Boy (Greg Cipes), Robin (Scott Menville), Cyborg (Khary Payton), Raven (Tara Strong) and Starfire (Hynden Walch) — as they try to convince a Hollywood director (Kristen Bell) to develop a movie based on their exploits. Complicating matters is the villain, Slade (Will Arnett). 

 New offerings at the specialty box office include A24's Hot Summer Nights, starring Timothee Chalamet and Maika Monroe. The coming-of-age drama, which has been awaiting release since premiering at SXSW more than a year ago, currently has a 42 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes.