Ghost Protocol, Puss In Boots set BO records

The first movie to reach the $200 million milestone in North America this year, Paramount's Mission: Impossible -- Ghost Protocol has also become the top grossing film in the Tom Cruise franchise, flying past the $546 million earned by Mission: Impossible II to hit $571 million at the worldwide box office. 

This is the second film in 2012 to reach the $500 million benchmark, the other one being the animation film Puss In Boots, whose worldwide collection is $510 million. Expect the film to end its highly profitable run with some $530 million. This was one of the last films DreamWorks made for Paramount before joining hands with Reliance Entertainment.

The news of  the records came amidst mixed reports for Oscar nominated films. While The Descendants and The Artist got the best boosts, War Horse has not benefitted much, doing smash business only in the UK and average business in America and Canada.

In an unrelated development, 59-year-old Liam Neeson scored a third consecutive hit with The Grey, a tough survival drama set in Alaska, following Taken and Unknown. All three opened at No 1 in North America. There surely is no chance of The Grey, which opened to $30 million in half a dozen countries, doing roaring business like Ghost Protocol but the film, which cost about $45 million, could easily grab over $125 million worldwide, earning a decent profit.

Cruise, 49 whose career as a box-office dynamo seemed to be waning last year, is once again a highly bankable movie star. He was also a co-producer on the latest Mission film. With $28 million grossed across the world over the weekend -- most of it coming from outside North America -- the movie which cost about $125 million to produce and $100 million to market has already become profitable. It could end its worldwide run with about $625 million before it starts the DVD-Blu ray journey.

The film was also a huge hit in India, according to Paramount, grossing over $13 million in the English and Hindi versions. But its India box-office looks very small compared to its South Korean (heading for $50 million) and Japanese (expected to gross at least $70 million) grosses. And over the weekend, it opened in China, and grossed $12 million as per Paramount
The film's success is also a milestone for its director Brad Bird who made into his foray into live action cinema having directed such huge animation hits as The Incredibles and Ratatouille.

Mission and Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows continued to dominate the world markets, with the latter heading for a hand $530