Tom Cruise doesn’t have the box office clout he once had, but put him in the right project and he can still do well. Unfortunately, “right project” for Cruise anymore basically means a Mission Impossible movie. Nonetheless, Oblivion is our number one movie this weekend, but it’s not like there was a lot of competition for that spot, as it was the sole new wide release of the weekend

Oblivion

The Tom Cruise sci-fi epic debuts with a good, but not great $38.2 million. That’s a bit above Minority Report, but then again, that film opened almost eleven years ago. I will say that Oblivion certainly looks pretty, but I don’t think that the advertising did a good job of letting people know what exactly the movie was about. Or what the hell Morgan Freeman is doing. But, anyway, this a decent debut, though getting to $100 million stateside is hardly a guarantee. However, Universal realized wisely that most of the money for this one will be made overseas and actually opened it in a few territories last weekend, ahead of its North American launch.

Second place goes to 42, which dropped 34% to $18 million. That’s a very good hold, which was to be expected after its glowing A+ Cinemascore and the positive audience reaction it’s had. With $54 million in the bank, $100 million is still on the outskirts of possible, though 42 will really have to work for it.

The Croods follows in third, falling 28% to $9.5 million. As the only option for kids throughout spring, the legs aren’t too surprising, even if they don’t come close to How to Train Your Dragon. The Croods has $155 million so far and should be headed for a total around $175 million.

Predictably crashing hard is Scary Movie 5. Honestly, falling 56% is actually a better hold than I might’ve expected. Then again, after the opening weekend was so dismal, there was only so far it could fall. $6.3 million this weekend gives it a running total of $23 million, so its entire gross won’t even touch the opening weekend of Scary Movie 4.

Down 47%, G.I. Joe pulled in $5.8 million. Its $111 million total to this point is about $20 million behind the original. Unless the overseas grosses really bolster this one up, I think we’ll have seen the last of this franchise. The Place Beyond the Pines expanded into nationwide release this weekend and pulled in $4.75 million. An $11.5 million total isn’t too bad for the Fox Focus picture.

Seventh places goes to Olympus Has Fallen, which I saw on Friday night. It was predictably jingoistic, ridiculous and over the top….but entertaining. Anyway, the Gerard Butler flick dropped 38% to $4.5 million and lifted its gross to $88.8 million, so inching over $100 million is still possible.

Evil Dead continued to crumble, falling 57% to $4.1 million. But its $48.5 million total is still well more than the original trilogy made in their entire runs combined. Speaking of updates on older movies, Jurassic Park 3D fell 55% to $4 million, bringing the total to $38.5 million.

We round out the top ten with Oz: The Great and Powerful, which still has a stranglehold on crown for highest grossing movie of the year. However, Iron Man 3 will probably surpass it in two, or at most, three weekends. Anyway, James Franco and company grossed $3.05 million, down 37%, to bring the total to $223.8 million.

Next weekend, we continue the build up until Iron Man 3 destroys all competitors. Neither The Big Wedding nor Pain and Gain look like breakout hits, but I’ve been wrong plenty of times before. We’ll see how it goes down next weekend. Until we meet again.