On the strength of 3D/IMAX, incredible word of mouth and the fact that very little of note opened this weekend, Gravity took the top spot at the box office for the third weekend in a row with $31 million, a 28 percent drop from the previous weekend, bringing its total to $170.6 million. With its only competition next week being the latest in the utterly tired Jackass franchise Bad Grandpa and the surprisingly under-advertised Ridley Scott film The Counselor, it might hold this spot for the entire month of October, an impressive feat for a film that was originally considered a huge gamble when it was in the pre-production stages. Captain Phillips also held strong in its second weekend at the number 2 spot with $17.3 million, down 33 percent from the previous weekend and easily on track to turn a profit.
The new releases of the weekend were a hit-and-miss affair. Carrie, the latest in remakes, racked up $17 million in third place, which is a decent debut but somewhat low for horror, especially being the only horror movie to be released in this Halloween month. The latest Arnold Schwarzenegger/Sylvester Stallone film, Escape Plan, attempting to lure in audiences who didn’t get all their 80’s nostalgia from the Expendables franchise racked up $9.8 million in fifth place, a better debut than Stallone’s solo 2013 effort Bullet to the Head but slightly less than Schwarzenegger’s surprisingly fun The Last Stand. The big surprise was the Benedict Cumberbatch-fronted Julian Assange film The Fifth Estate, which opened in eighth place to $1.7 million, one of the weakest wide releases of the year. One would have thought the Cumberbitches would have come in droves, but weak reviews and the fact that its star looked like a cast member from Children of the Corn likely kept audiences away.
In the indie markets, two likely Oscar contenders, 12 Years a Slave and All Is Lost, opened to an impressive $50,526 per screen average at 19 locations and a decent-but-not-spectacular $16,233 per screen average at 6 locations, respectively. Both films will roll into wide releases in the coming weeks. Oh, and that Ja Rule Christian movie I’m In Love With A Church Girl found its niche in 457 locations to the tune of $1.02 million, which is a solidly middle of the road opening for a niche market film that doesn’t star Kirk Cameron.
(Photo and numbers courtesy Box Office Mojo)
