It was a great weekend for the top three films at the box office, with Gravity continuing to hit record breaking numbers and Tom Hanks earning his first big hit in years, as adult audiences are flocking to the theaters for awards bait films.
Gravity fell just 21%, pulling in another $44 million for the biggest non-holiday hold of any movie that's ever opened to over $55 million in the first weekend. The movie performed like a summer blockbuster over the weekdays, so the word of mouth is outstanding and it's still got a long way to go. $250 million total is all but assured, the question is if it can get to $300 million with all the Oscar buzz. That's an incredible hold by the way for an action movie starring a 49 year old woman of all people- and that's not snark, that's genuinely impressive and extremely rare. Sandra Bullock continues to rule the box office after The Heat became the biggest comedy of the year, and all this on the heels of her smash hits The Proposal and The Blind Side in just 2009. After breaking through 19 years ago in Speed, who'd have thought at her age she'd be the biggest female movie star in the world? It's pretty cool, I have to say.
Meanwhile Captain Phillips pulled in $26 million and earned an "A" Cinemascore (better than Gravity's A-), so this film will have legs as well. The Tom Hanks real life inspired piracy drama reached an audience 52% male, 48% female, and 62% over age 35. It's his first hit since Angels and Demons 5 years ago and is looking to cross Argo's total of $130 million by the end of its run (it will). In third was Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2, which is hanging in there with $14 million this weekend and $78 million total, set to surpass the original for sure, and Machete Kills bombed with just under $4 million as the other wide release.
Top 5:
- Gravity- $44.2 million
- Captain Phillips- $26 million
- Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2- $14.2 million
- Runner Runner- $3.7 million
- Machete Kills- $3.7 million
Next week, in wide release there's the Carrie remake, Escape Plan and The Fifth Estate, and in limited release, the dramas 12 Years a Slave and All is Lost with Robert Redford.
