'Gravity' Leads The Way At The Box Office And Sets New October Record Too

Gravity has proved to be the unlikely success story of early October thanks to the overwhelming word-of-mouth success. Having been heralded by the internet long before it was given it's official release on Friday, 4 October, the film rode out it's first weekend stay at the box office with immense success, gaining further praise and breaking the October box office record along the way.

Gravity
Gravity has soared to success

Starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, both of whom (Bullock in particular) are being touted for awards success thanks to their performances in the film, Gravity has been described as an out of this world ocular treat, held together thanks to the gripping direction of Alfonso Cuaron and the performance of the two stars. This critical and internet-fuelled momentum has seen the film smash previous box office records for the month of October by bringing in an estimated $55.6 million over the weekend. As well as beating the record previously held by Paranormal Activity 3, the film is also the best opening for both of the film's stars, beating The Heat and Batman and Robin respectively.

Performing admirably and slipping into second place on it's second week in the box office, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 managed to bring it's overall box office gross to $60.6 mil. thanks to an estimated take of $21.5 mil. over the weekend. With a $11.2 mil. total so far overseas, the film is on track to exceed the success of the original film when it played in cinemas in 2009.

Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 continues to have impressive audience numbers

Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck couldn't provide enough pull power to prevent Runner Runner from being a failure in it's opening weekend. The film has only managed to make $7.6 mil. over the weekend, despite opening at over 3,000 locations across America. It's failure can best be attributed to the fact that critics and early screening tests deemed the film to be a generic bore and that it's marketing team pushed for an adult audience, the same adult audience that will have seen Gravity instead. After such an unimpressive opening, the film will be lucky to recoup three times as much as it's opening take, which will place it in line with some of the year's biggest flops.

Runner Runner
JT and Affleck just didn't cut it with audiences

Finishing off the final two places in the top five were the well-received Prisoners and Rush, both of whom have received strong critical backing as well as a word-of-mouth buzz. On the back of this, Prisoners has so far managed to bring in $47.9 mil. overall after a reasonable weekend saw it earn add a further $5.7 mil. to it's box office takings. Rush on the other hand fared much less impressively, picking up at meagre $4.4 mil. in it's second week. This gives the film an underwhelming overall take of $18.1 mil. at the US box office so far, however it is expected to do much better overseas than it is in the US. The full box office top 10 is available below (Box Office Mojo).

Rush
Ron Howard will be hoping that Rush doesn't stall at the overseas market