Tom Cruise plays a repairman who uncovers a dangerous secret in Oblivion. Picture: Universal Pictures Source: Supplied
TOM Cruise has topped the Aussie box office for the first time since the end of 2011.
The divisive star’s new sci-fi film Oblivion enjoyed a $3.3 million opening weekend to push aside school holiday fare and take No.1 on the box office chart.
Cruise last hit No.1 in December 2011 with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol. The action blockbuster went on to gross $17.6 million.
In June 2012, his much-hyped musical comedy Rock of Ages bombed, taking just $3.5 million. He returned to action with January’s Jack Reacher, which peaked at No.5 and grossed a so-so $8.7 million.
Oblivion - in which Cruise plays a maintenance worker left to protect assets on Earth after a war renders the planet un-liveable - has yet to open in the US but took around $60 million worldwide over the weekend.
It was shot largely in Iceland, which was where Cruise was when he learned his ex-wife Katie Holmes was filing for divorce.
Cruise will visit similar territory to Oblivion in his next movie, All You Need is Kill, about a futuristic soldier stuck in a loop as he fights in a war against aliens. It opens in Australia on March 6.
The Top 5 at the Australian box office for the weekend just gone was rounded out by The Croods ($2.7 million), Identity Thief ($1.3 million), new release Scary Movie 5 ($1.2 million) and another new entry, Warm Bodies ($976,068). The latter stars Australia’s Teresa Palmer and topped the US box office when it was released there on a quiet weekend in February.
Meanwhile, Bruce Willis’ fifth Die Hard adventure, A Good Day to Die Hard, passed $10 million in Australia over the weekend. It has taken almost $300 million worldwide to become the third-highest grossing movie in the franchise.
