It looks as though Tom Cruise’s latest action rampage Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation is going to exceed the very good commercial performance expected of it this weekend, with the news that the thriller has made a near-record $20.3 million on its opening Friday (July 31st).

Industry insiders who have been able to access pre-release audience surveys predicted that the latest MI instalment would make approximately $40 million over its opening weekend. However, the Friday figure from nearly 4,000 theaters – doubly impressive for one that didn’t debut on a Wednesday, according to Forbes – has revised studio expectations upwards to as high as $52 million.

Tom CruiseCruise as Ethan Hunt in 'Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation'

The Paramount / Skydance studio collaboration had a $150 million budget, and was directed by Christopher McQuarrie. It find Cruise, who again plays the death-defying IMF agent Ethan Hunt, facing off against a shadowy force of special agents known as the Syndicate.

More: Tom Cruise lays down his conditions for ‘Top Gun 2’: “No CGI”

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation also stars Simon Pegg, Jeremy Renner and Rebecca Ferguson. It has garnered extremely positive reviews from critics thusfar, holding a 93% rating on reviews aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes at the time of writing.

Cruise, who made his debut in the first Mission Impossible 19 years ago, has already confirmed that there are plans for a sixth movie.

Other movies released this weekend are quite a long way behind Cruise’s latest caperings. Vacation, a re-make of a 1983 comedy hit starring Ed Helms, Christina Applegate and Chris Hemsworth, made $4.5 million on its opening night, while The End of the Tour, featuring Jason Segel and Jesse Eisenberg, made $44,000 from just four locations the same night.

Ant-Man, Pixels and Minions, three films that are expected to still perform well from previous weekends, made approximately $3 million between them on Friday.

More: ‘Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation’ – review