Well, the box office gave us a lot to talk about this morning. To begin, Gravity became the first film in 2013 to repeat at #1 for three weeks in a row over the course of a three-day weekend. Yes, Lee Daniels’ The Butler did it as well if you count four-day weekends, but we don’t, because that wouldn’t make sense. Nevertheless, with an estimated $31 million, Gravity also enjoys the second largest third weekend total of the year, first belonging to Iron Man 3, which eventually went on to gross $409 million. Obviously it won’t be going that high, but being at $170.5 million after only three weeks I think $300 million is definitely a possibility.
In third (Captain Phillips edged it out) was the Carrie remake, but it landed well below expectations, bringing in only $17 million. Tracking was around $25 million on this title and even our reader predictions were up around $23 million. I guess the rather negative reviews and the feeling the trailer gave away the entire film (because it does) kept people away. Even those that braved the remake waters came away giving it a “B-” CinemaScore so I don’t expect we’ll be hearing much more from this one.
Speaking of films we won’t be hearing from any longer, how about The Fifth Estate? I bet Julian Assange is laughing his head off right now as Drewamworks and Touchstone decided to go with a medium-sized opening of 1,769 theaters and suffered the wrath of uninterested audiences. Fifth Estate opened to only $1.7 million this weekend, $969 per theater. Think of the worst film you saw this year and what kind of opening did it enjoy? I know many point to Movie 43 and Scary Movie 5, neither of which I saw, but they enjoyed $2,376 and $4,161 per theater averages during their opening weekends respectively.
Now if we wanted to talk about great opening weekend averages we’ll turn to Oscar contender 12 Years a Slave, which took to a meager 19 theaters this weekend and brought in $960,000 for a $50,526 per theater average. If it didn’t open near you this weekend, click here to see if it will next weekend as it expands and then it will go wide on November 1.
Another Oscar hopeful hitting limited theaters this weekend was J.C. Chandor‘s All is Lost starring Robert Redford. Opening in just six theaters it brought in an estimated $95,000, an average of $16,000 per. Not too bad.
Finally, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger were in theaters this weekend with Escape Plan, which isn’t too bad (read my review here), but it only managed $9.8 million. Could it really have expected much more? It earned a “B+” CinemaScore from opening day audiences, which isn’t too bad, but we won’t hear much more from this until it hits DVD and Blu-ray, where it will best serve those that see it.
Now, I have to mention this because I think this was the first weekend it has happened since we started the RopeofSilicon Box Office Challenge, but Laremy actually beat the reader aggregate this weekend. He actually won all four battles. I know he’s dancing in the streets right now and hopefully more of you will participate over the course of upcoming weekends to make the competition even stiffer.
Beyond that, next weekend sees the release of Ridley Scott‘s The Counselor and Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa along with the limited release of the much-talked-about festival favorite Blue is the Warmest Color. I have a hard time thinking Gravity will make it four in a row against that crop.
