LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tom Cruise is off to a good start for the new year with a second-straight No 1 weekend at the box office.

Cruise’s Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol took in an estimated US$38.3 million domestically over the long holiday weekend from Friday to Monday. That raised its total to US$141.2 million.

Ghost Protocol also pulled in US$37 million overseas to push its international total to US$225.3 million and worldwide haul to US$366.5 million.

The movie helped lift distributor Paramount to a record US$5.17 billion in worldwide box office for 2011, topping the previous high of US$4.8 billion set by Warner Bros in 2010.

Paramount’s 2011 hits included Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which took in US$1.1 billion worldwide, along with Thor, Captain America: The First Avenger, Kung Fu Panda 2, Puss in Boots and Rango.

Finishing second again for the weekend was Robert Downey Jr’s Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows with US$26.5 million. The family sequel Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked came in third with US$21 million.

Rounding out the top-five were Steven Spielberg’s War Horse at No 4 with US$19.2 million and David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo just behind at No 5 with US$19 million.

Source: http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/entertainment/Cruise-controls-box-office_10490239