For the third weekend in a row, 'Gravity' dominated the box office, taking no prisoners in its quest to become one of 2013's most deserving blockbusters. However, its tremendous success has been at the expense of a handful of other films, which have been crushed in Alfonso Cuaron's titanic wake.

FilmWeekendPer Screen
1Gravity$31,030,000 (-28.2)$8,123$170,566,000
2Captain Phillips$17,300,000 (-32.7)$5,728$53,300,000
3Carrie$17,000,000$5,385$17,000,000
4Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2$10,100,000 (-26.7)$2,804$93,137,000
5Escape Plan$9,800,000
$3,339$9,800,000
6Prisoners$2,065,000 (-43.2)$956$57,259,000
7Enough Said$1,500,000 (-5.8)$2,378$10,787,000
8The Fifth Estate$1,714,000$969$1,714,000
9Runner Runner$1,625,000 (-56.9)$808$17,536,000
10Insidious Chapter 2$1,533,000 (-43.6)$921$80,923,000

 

Let's start with the good stuff. After all, there was quite a bit of it this weekend.

'Gravity' snagged $31 million, bringing its grand total so far to $170 million. That's only a 28% drop from last week and it's kind of astonishing. Most blockbusters see drops of 50% or more between weekends, but this Sandra Bullock space thriller has showcased some amazing staying power, steadily making a lot of money instead of earning it all up front. $200 million isn't going to be a problem and after that, the sky is the limit.

In second place. 'Captain Phillips' had a great second weekend. Dropping only 32% for a $17 million weekend and a $53 million total, Paul Greengrass' thriller is doing exceptionally well for an R-rated movie with little appeal to younger (dumber) people. The small drop suggests positive word of mouth, which should help the film get to at least $80 million or so, maybe $100 million if the universe is especially kind.

One of the other surprising winners this weekend was 'Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2,' which dropped a tiny 26% in its fourth weekend, grossing $10 million for a $93 million total. The animated sequel should pass $100 million next week, putting it within spitting distance of the first film. The lack of other family-friendly entertainment this month has been a boon for this one.

And the $1.5 million weekend gross for 'Enough Said' may not be that impressive, but that 5% drop sure is. In a strict numbers sense, that's excellent.

Meanwhile, outside of the top 10, '12 Years a Slave' made $960,000 on only 19 screens. We should be seeing that one in the top 10 really soon.

And now, the disappointments.

The remake of 'Carrie' opened in third place with a lame $17 million, which seems awfully low for a horror movie opening this close to Halloween. While it's a shame to see a horror flick doing that poorly during this season, it did suffer from mixed reactions and a lackluster marketing campaign.

Anyway, 'Carrie' still managed to do better than 'Escape Plan,' which opened with a dismal $9 million. As much as movie fans love 'em, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger feel like yesterday's news at the box office. Their days of ruling Hollywood have long passed them by. 'Escape Plan' may not be a particularly good movie, but this poor opening still has us a little melancholy. We can't help but root for those guys.

In any case, it was still much better than the WikiLeaks drama 'The Fifth Estate,' which opened in eighth place with a downright disastrous $1.7 million. As well-liked as Benedict Cumberbatch is on the small screen, this is definitive proof that he's no movie star. Yikes.

As for everything else: 'Prisoners' continued to trek onward and it should break $60 million in the next week or two, 'Runner Runner' probably won't break $20 million and 'Insidious Chapter 2' managed to crack $80 million.

Next weeks sees the release of 'The Counselor' and 'Bad Grandpa.' Expect the latter to make a ton of money.

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