How disappointing is the $51 or $52 or $53 million that Mission: Impossible III is likely to earn on this, its opening weekend? I’m not sure that “disappointment” is the right pocket-drop word since the expectation from the get-go was that the Cruise negatives might keep it from soaring into the stratosphere, but that it would probably do respectable blockbuster business. Yesterday M:I:3 did $17 million on 4054 screens (although I’ve read there are something like 8000 prints out there). $51 or $52 million is about what Van Helsing, a repellent piece of shit, did on its opening weekend in ’04. (If M:I:3 follows the VH pattern, it will finish with about $300 million worldwide .) On the other hand, Ice Age: The Meltdown did $68,033,544 when it opened just a few weekends ago, or roughly $17 million higher. Remember, also, that X2: X-Men United did $85,558,731 when it opened in early May 2003. I would therefore call M:I:3‘s opening weekend moderately disappointing . Cruise has definitely lost some of his box-office potency but, to repeat, this was evident a long time ago.