LOS ANGELES — The stakes may be high for Ethan Hunt and his team in “Mission: Impossible —Rogue Nation,” but it was hardly impossible for the Tom Cruise pic to conquer the box office.

The fifth installment in the nearly 20-year-old film series has earned $56 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. Opening weekend audiences were 62 percent male and 81 percent over the age of 25.

It’s the second-highest opening for a “Mission” film since “Mission Impossible II” took in $57.8 million over Memorial Day weekend in 2000. Rentrak’s Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian said Cruise is to credit for making these films one of the longest-running viable franchises on the market.

“This is the playbook on how a star — who is also a producer on the movie — gets the word out about his movie,” he said. “He’s a marketing machine.”

Warner Brothers’ “Vacation,” went a bit off track. The $30 million film earned $14.9 million over the weekend and $21.2 million since opening Wednesday. Critics were not kind to the comedy and audiences as a whole didn’t seem too thrilled either. According to exit polls, audiences gave the film a not-promising B CinemaScore.

Estimated sales fat U.S. and Canadian theaters:

1.“Mission: Impossible —Rogue Nation,” $56 million

2.“Vacation,” $14.9 million

3.“Ant-Man,” $12.6 million

4.“Minions,” $12.2 million

5.“Pixels,” $10.4 million

6.“Trainwreck,” $9.7 million

7.“Southpaw,” $7.5 million

8.“Paper Towns,” $4.6 million

9.“Inside Out,” $4.5 million

10.“Jurassic World,” $3.8 million.