'Captain Phillips' Has A Strong Maiden Voyage, But Cannot Knock 'Gravity' From The Top Of The Box Office

Captain Phillips has been given a strong critical appraisal and, with Tom Hanks as it's star, has one of the most popular movie stars working today providing even more cause for people to come and see the hostage drama over the weekend. As alluring as the film seemed, it just couldn't knock Gravity from it's perch as the number one movie at the box office, as the Sandra Bullock and George Clooney-starring space marvel held strong for another week at the top.

Gravity
Gravity's pull is just too strong

Last weekend the film set the record for the highest opening gross of all time, and this weekend the punters carried on filling in the stalls as the film surpassed the $120 million mark, having earned $44,265,000 this weekend alone. With a strong word of mouth promotion and on the back of some fantastic reviews, Gravity has outdone itself in many respects, with producers only dreaming of making such an impact in the box office. The massive gains can also be attributed to the number of people going to see the film in IMAX, with many comments on the film praising the spectacle of the whole thing on the big screen. 'The bigger the screen, the better the movie' seems to have become the unofficial tagline for the film.

Captain Phillips did have a good opening weekend though, despite the continued success of Gravity. It managed to bring in $26 mil. over the weekend, which is an impressive number for an adult-aimed audience in October and a higher amount than some of last year's notable thrillers, such as Zero Dark Thirty and Argo. After a disappointing summer for Sony, the immediate, albeit modest, success of Capt. Phillips should be enough to let the studio chiefs rest a little easier for now.

Captain Phillips still manage to draw in a considerable opening gross

Another Sony picture; Cloudy With A Chance of Meatballs 2, may have managed to put a smile on the studio bosses' faces again. Coming in at third over the weekend and with $14.2 mil. earned since Friday, the film has now made back it's budget and looks on course to make the studio a tidy profit. The film has earned just over $78 mil. (it's estimate budget) since it was released three weeks ago.

Coming fourth was another newcomer, one that bombed quite dramatically, but admittedly not unexpectedly. Machete Kills brought over-the-top B-movie fun to only a handful of people in it's opening weekend, earning just under $4 mil. to snatch away the number four spot from it's nearest rival. Making only 70k less over the weekend, Runner Runner slipped to fifth place in it's second week and looks set to give Fox a sizeable loss in profit.

The film was made for the relatively modest price of $30 mil. (estimate), however the predictable storyline and wooden acting resulted in just too many negative reviews to result in a box office success. The film has made less than $15 mil. since it's debut last week. You can check out the full list of the Box Office Top Ten below (all information courtesy of Box Office Mojo).

All the skimpy outfits and moustaches in the world won't help Machete Kills