Mission: Impossible bests Winnie-the-Pooh at box office

Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible.

Tom Cruise sped past Winnie-the-Pooh at the box office to lead all films for the second straight week with an estimated US$35 million ($52m) in ticket sales for Mission: Impossible - Fallout.

The success of Paramount Pictures' sixth Mission: Impossible instalment, along with muted enthusiasm for Disney'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 US$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 $25m. Black Panther became the third film to cross US$700m domestically, a feat only previously accomplished by Avatar and Star Wars: The Force Awakens.

Made for around US$75m, 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.

While reviews were mixed, audiences gave it an "A" CinemaScore.

Cathleen Taff, head of distribution for Disney, confirmed that Christopher Robin has been denied a release in China, locking it out of the world's second-largest film market.

While China provides no reason for the films it doesn't select for its theatres, government censors have recently been blocking images of Winnie-the-Pooh after bloggers began using him to parody Chinese President Xi Jinping.

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

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

R-rated action-comedy The Spy Who Dumped Me debuted in third with US$12.4m for Lionsgate.

- AP