'Gravity' Still Orbiting Top Spot At The US Box Office For Third Week Running

It's been three weeks since it was released to the American public, but the sci-fi thriller Gravity has stayed strong and continued to dominate the US box office. The Sandra Bullock and George Clooney-starring film has continued to be a popular choice among cinema goers, helped largely by its word-of-mouth success and continued success in 3D and IMAX cinemas.

Gravity
Even Sandra Bullock can't believe Gravity's success

In what was a relatively lackluster weekend at the movies, Gravity added to its already impressive domestic gross with another $31 million (estimate) coming in from audiences since Friday (18 Oct.). The space-set Oscar contender did face some competition for the top spot, but its nearest rivals - horror remake Carrie and fellow Oscar-contender Captain Phillips - failed to do enough, leaving Gravity sitting pretty at the top of the US film chart. The estimated $31 million brought in over the weekend bring the total domestic gross to a whooping $170.6 million, a huge amount for a film that was predicted to only do modestly before its release three weeks ago.

With it's latest takings, the film currently sits as the 10th highest grossing film of the year in the domestic market, and with it's cinematic run far from over, there is a good chance it could go on to break even further into the top ten. The fact that the film hasn't even been released in international markets yet will no doubt give the film's distributors at Warner Brothers even more reason to salivate over the film's success.

Carrie
Carrie struggled to assert itself at the box office

The top two spots were taken up by the same films as last week, with the Tom Hank-starring Captain Phillip coming in second once again. The film grossed an estimated $17.3 mil. over the weekend, and couldn't been ousted from it's second place sitting by the Chloe Moretz-starring remake of Stephen King's Carrie. The horror reboot was predicted to earn close to $20 mil. on it's opening weekend, but fell short of the mark by some way, which can probably be owed to the broad demographic of the top two films.

The Carrie remake managed to make around $17 mil. between Friday and Sunday, which also goes some way towards reflecting the lukewarm reception the film has received so far and the shyness of would-be cinema goers in this below-average weekend. Whilst the Sony-distributed Carrie struggled to make much of an impact at the cinemas, Sony's current animated offering, Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, continued it's steady success at the box office with another respectable performance.

Coming in fourth with a solid $10.1 mil., the film's domestic gross currently sits at around $93 mil. and should this steady success continue, the film should break into the $100 mil. mark before the weekend is over.

Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2 continues to perform well

Whilst Carrie struggled to assert itself as a serious box office contender, the two other new releases of the weekend met varying success. Escape Plan, the Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger prison break vehicle, met expectations by coming in fifth after playing to a largely adult, male-based audience over the weekend. Bringing in a reasonable $9.8 mil. in it's first week, the film has performed admirably at best. The other new release of the weekend; the WikiLeaks drama The Fifth Estate, fared much worse than any of it's closest competitors however.

The Benedict Cumberbatch and Daniel Brühl-starring film suffered a devastating opening weekend after it was released to a wide audience, as apposed to the initially planned limited release Disney had in mind. The film company's over-confidence worked tremendously against them, as the film grossed only $1.7 mil. over the weekend.

The complete top ten is available below (all information courtesy of Box Office Mojo).

The cast of The Fifth Estate react to the poor opening weekend