Mission: Impossible III (abbreviated M:i:III) is the third film based on the television series Mission: Impossible starring Tom Cruise who reprises his role of IMF agent Ethan Hunt.
The film was directed by Alias creator and Lost executive producer J. J. Abrams. It was first released on April 26, 2006 at the Tribeca Film Festival, and widely released in the United States on May 5, 2006. Filming began in Rome, Italy in July 2005. The film had been kept under extremely tight wraps, and very little was known of its plots or new featured characters during filming. Location filming took place in China (Shanghai, Xitang, and Zhouzhuang), Germany (Berlin), Italy (Rome), the United States (California and Virginia), and Vatican City.
Mission: Impossible III scored mostly positive reviews among critics, and is presently the highest rated Mission Impossible film at the Internet Movie Database, where it is rated 6.9/10. Currently, it sits at a 71% approval rating at rottentomatoes.com, the best rating of the trilogy. On Ebert and Roeper, Richard Roeper gave it a 'thumbs up', while Roger Ebert gave it a marginal 'thumbs down'.
Opening in 4,054 theaters all across the United States (the 4th largest opening ever), the film easily topped the box-office in its opening weekend. It made $16.6 million on its opening day. It made $47.7 million in its opening weekend, a solid opening yet well below industry expectations and almost $10 million lower than the franchise's previous installment. On its second weekend, the sequel remained number 1 with $25 million (ahead of Poseidon's $22.2 million). The movie remained in the Top 10 at the box office for the first 6 weeks of its release. Mission: Impossible III ended its domestic run with $134 million. It was the second movie in 2006 to pass the $100,000,000 mark in the box office. (The first was Ice Age: The Meltdown).
Outside of the USA, the sequel grossed $70 million for the first five days (in some Asian countries, Mission: Impossible III opened two days ahead of its North American release date) and was easily the box-office champion in many countries. As of February 11, 2007, M:I-III's international box office gross has reached $263.8 million, for a combined worldwide gross of $397.9 million.
In the Netherlands, the film debuted in the week of May 4-10 at #1, grossing a total of ˆ 532,384 in that week. The following week, the film remained on the top position. In its third week, the film dropped to #2 and the following week, fell to #4. Next it maintained the #4 position to drop to #6 (in the week of June 6 - June 14). In total, the film has grossed over ˆ 2,141,162.Wikipedia
