Los Angeles, Aug 3 (IANS): Paramount's "Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation" debuted this weekend, snatching the first place at the North American box office with $56 million.

Opening at 3,956 locations, the Tom Cruise-led action film pulled in $20.3 million on Friday, marking the best opening day in the history of the series.

Without adjusting for ticket price inflation, the $56 million opening weekend ticket sale is the second largest opening weekend take of the fifth in the "Mission: Impossible" series, which kicked off with "Mission: Impossible" in 1996.

The film earned an "A-" grade from audience polling firm CinemaScore and a 93 percent positive rating from critics on RottenTomatoes.

The audience breakdown for the film skewed towards male moviegoers (62 percent) and towards moviegoers over the age of 25 (81 percent).

Warner's R-rated comedy "Vacation" debuted in a distant second place this weekend with $14.8 million. Opening at 3,411 locations, the film got a modest "B" rating from first-night moviegoers on CinemaScore, but it received a poor 23 percent of approval rating from critics on RottenTomatoes.

Marvel's "Ant-Man" finished third in its third weekend, adding $12.6 million to its total gross. In the first 17 days since it was released, "Ant-Man" has made about $132 million in the US and Canada. The overseas market contributed another $159 million to its total revenue.

The other movies which made the top 10 list this weekend in the US and Canada were "Minions" ($12.2 million), "Pixels" ($10.4 million), "Trainwreck" ($9.7 million), "Southpaw" ($7.5 million), "Paper Towns" ($4.6 million), "Inside Out" ($4.5 million) and "Jurassic World" ($3.8 million).