Tom Cruise latest outing as Ethan Hunt in Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol has topped the US box office for the second week in a row.

Tom Cruise, Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol
Tom Cruise has scored his first $100m hit since 2006 with Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol (Picture: Paramount Pictures)

The high octane action adventure, which features a number of daredevil stunts, made $31.3m (£20.1m) over the New Year’s weekend.

This brings its total box office takings in the US to $134.1m ($86.5m) – making it Cruise’s first $100 million hit since 2006’s Mission: Impossible III.

Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol beat off competition from Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows, which raked in $22.1m (£14.2m) to come second.

Animated feature Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked ranked third with takings of $18.3m (£11.4m) while Steven Speilberg’s Warhorse was fourth with box office receipts of $16.9m (£10.6m).

The American adaptation of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo took $16.3m (£10.5m) to round out the top five.

Hollywood.com analyst Paul Dergarabedian said that the box office performance over the weekend was a promising start to the year.

He told the BBC: ‘Last week, we were really pretty gloom and doom, but this final push at the end of the year was stronger than expected. It’s a good way to head into 2012, with at least a little bit of momentum at the box office.’