newsmakers

newsmakers

‘Mission’ stays on top with $31.3 million

LOS ANGELES

Tom Cruise’s new mission remains impossible to beat at the box office.

Studio estimates Sunday placed “Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol” in the No. 1 spot for the second-straight weekend with $31.3 million. With a $134.1 million domestic total, it’s the first $100 million hit with Cruise in the lead role since 2006’s “Mission: Impossible III.”

The Paramount release led a solid New Year’s weekend as Hollywood managed fair business to end a sluggish year on a more promising note for 2012.

The rest of this weekend’s top-three remained unchanged. Robert Downey Jr.’s “Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows,” from Warner Bros., finished second again with $22.1 million. The 20th Century Fox family sequel “Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked” was still at No. 3 with $18.3 million.

In its first full weekend, Steven Spielberg’s World War I epic “War Horse” came in fourth with $16.9 million. At No. 5 was David Fincher’s thriller “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”

Cameron Crowe’s family tale “We Bought a Zoo” finished at No. 6.

Rounding out the top films was Spielberg and producer Jackson’s animated action story “The Adventures of Tintin” at No. 7.

Jackman on Broadway equals cold cash

NEW YORK

Hugh Jackman has left Broadway with a lot of broken hearts — and records.

The hunky Australian actor’s one-man Broadway concert show closed Sunday afternoon at the Broadhurst Theatre after having earned $2,057,354 in its final week, the highest weekly gross recorded by the Shubert Organization, which owns the Broadhurst and 16 other Broadway theaters.

Over its 10-week run, Jackman earned a whopping $14,638,428, producers said. He now owns 10 of the 11 top-grossing weeks at the Broadhurst.

Jackman, best known for being the hairy Wolverine in “The X-Men” franchise, routinely sold out the 1,176-seat theater and usually posted weekly grosses of $1.5 million, often higher than rival musicals such as “Jersey Boys,” “Mamma Mia!,” “How to Succeed in Business,” “Anything Goes” and “Follies.”

Only “Wicked” and “The Lion King,” produced by other organizations, consistently outdid Jackman. But those shows also had much higher overhead costs.

During the run, Jackman raised a record $1,789,580 for the charity Broadway Cares/Equity Fights AIDS. The run “not only confirms him as one of the most bankable stars in Broadway’s history but also as a fundraiser,” producer Robert Fox said.

Jackman’s other stage credits include Australian productions of “Sunset Boulevard” and “Beauty and the Beast.” In London he starred as Curly in Trevor Nunn’s staging of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s “Oklahoma!” Next year, he plans to star in a version of the musical “Les Miserables.”

Bonham Carter to be honored by Queen

LONDON

Oscar-nominated actress Helena Bonham Carter, famed for playing quirky characters as well as British royalty, joins a former prisoner, a reality TV guru and several Olympics organizers on the list of people being awarded honors by Queen Elizabeth II this New Year.

Bonham Carter missed out on the best supporting actress Oscar for her role as Queen Elizabeth, the supportive wife of King George VI in “The King’s Speech.” Her other major roles have included characters in films such as “Planet of the Apes” and “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.”

The queen, who is the daughter of King George VI and Elizabeth, awarded Bonham Carter a CBE, short for Commanders of the Order of the British Empire.

Associated Press