'Gravity' pulls in record-breaking $55.6 million

Box office report: 'Gravity' pulls in record-breaking $55.6 million
By Grady Smith on Oct 6, 2013 at 2:04PM  @gradywsmith  

Warner Bros.’ $100 million Alfonso Cuarón-directed thriller Gravity blasted off on its opening weekend at the box office, scoring a stunning $55.6 million from 3,575 theaters. The sci-fi title, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, set a new October opening weekend record, surpassing Paranormal Activity 3‘s $52.6 million debut in 2011.

Gravity also marks the best-ever debut for both of its stars, beating Bullock’s $39.1 million start for this summer’s The Heat (talk about having a great year at the box office!) and Clooney’s $42.9 million debut for Batman & Robin in 1997. And to put a cherry on top of Warner Bros.’ incredible weekend, audiences issued Gravity an excellent “A-” CinemaScore grade, which will yield great word-of-mouth for weeks to come.

The film played to a much broader audience than most young-male-dominated sci-fi films. Crowds were 54 percent male and 46 percent female, and 59 percent were above the age of 35. 3-D showings accounted for a whopping 80 percent of the film’s weekend gross (bucking the downward trend 3-D has faced this year and proving that audiences will pay for the format if they feel it’s worth it). IMAX tickets made up 20 percent of revenue — because if there’s one thing that looks great on a big screen, it’s outer space.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 dropped 37 percent in its second weekend to $21.5 million, which gives the animated title a $60.6 million total after 10 days. Sony spent $78 million on the saucy sequel and wisely scheduled it away from other family competition, which should allow it to thrive throughout October. (By comparison, films like Turbo and The Smurfs 2 got choked out this summer while competing with each other and Despicable Me 2 and Monsters University.) The next animated film to arrive in theaters, Free Birds, won’t come out until Nov. 1.

Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake faltered in third place with their new crime drama Runner Runner, which earned a weak $7.6 million in its first three days. Both stars are hotter than ever: Affleck, after winning an Oscar for Argo and landing the Batman role in Warner Bros.’ upcoming Man of Steel sequel, and Timberlake, after hitting No. 1 with his comeback album The 20/20 Experience, the sequel to which is projected to be the No. 1 album this week. But nothing about Runner Runner inspired crowds to check it out in theaters. Audiences issued the poorly reviewed film, which cost Fox about $30 million, a weak “C” CinemaScore grade.

Prisoners and Rush made up the rest of the Top 5. Prisoners fell 48 percent  to $5.7 million, giving the Hugh Jackman vehicle a $47.9 million total against a $46 million budget. The film earned excellent reviews, but has had trouble holding on to audiences due to the arrival of Rush, Don Jon, and Gravity — three well-reviewed dramas attracting attention. Fortunately, Prisoners is holding on better than one of those films, Rush, which fell 56 percent this weekend to $4.4 million. The Formula One racing drama starring Chris Hemsworth and directed by Ron Howard has now earned $18.1 million total and will fall short of its $38 million budget.

1. Gravity – $55.6 million
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $21.5 million
3. Runner Runner – $7.6 million
4. Prisoners – $5.7 million
5. Rush – $4.4 million

EW write up

The numbers looked good over the weekend......


Box office update: 'Gravity' blasts off with $17.5 million Friday, could hit $50 million for the weekend
By Grady Smith on Oct 5, 2013 at 1:39PM  @gradywsmith  


Warner Bros.’ $80 million thriller Gravity demonstrated some major pull on its opening day at the box office. The film, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney as stranded astronauts, scored a tremendous $17.5 million on its first day, which puts the film on pace for a weekend in the $50 million range.

Gravity will almost certainly become the best opening weekend ever for both of its stars, surprassing Bullock’s $39 million start for The Heat earlier this year and Clooney’s $42.9 million debut for Batman & Robin in 1997. It looks like Warner Bros.’ bold, stylish ad campaign has paid off.

Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 held up alright in second place, dipping 49 percent from its first Friday. The former box office champion grossed $4.7 million, which puts it on pace for a $20 million sophomore frame and a $59 million total by Sunday night.

Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake’s crime drama Runner Runner didn’t inspire many crowds to run to the theater. Fox’s $30 million film grossed an awful $2.8 million from 3,026 theaters, yielding a sad $909 location average. The poorly reviewed title will finish the weekend with about $7.5 million.

Prisoners and Don Jon rounded out the Top 5, grossing $1.7 million and $1.4 million respectively. Prisoners may add another $5.5 million to it’s cume, while Don Jon may have to settle for an underwhelming $4.2 million.

1. Gravity – $17.5 million
2. Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 – $4.7 million
3. Runner Runner – $2.8 million
4. Prisoners – $1.7 million
5. Don Jon – $1.4 million

Link

How Hollywood Can Make More Movies Like "Gravity"

The Sandra Bullock-George Clooney space thriller just broke several box office records, but that doesn’t necessarily mean Hollywood needs to start racing to make more space thrillers. posted on October 6, 2013 at 2:04pm EDT


Whenever a movie like Gravity comes along — breaking major box office records and breaking major new ground in the art of filmmaking — Hollywood studios often work furiously to replicate its success while missing the real reasons behind that success. And indeed, Gravity — a 3-D lost-in-space thriller so cutting edge, director Alfonso Cuarón had to invent a way to make it — did just gross an estimated $55.6 million, an all-time high for the month of October, as well as for stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

When you adjust for inflation, the only one of those records that still stands is Bullock’s — Batman & Robin and The Perfect Storm were bigger for Clooney, and Scary Movie 3, Shark Tale, and Paranormal Activity 3 were bigger in October. But that actually underlines just how unusual Gravity is in modern Hollywood. When you look at the top 15 grossing films in October, eight are sequels, two are prequels, one is a horror remake, and one is an adaptation of a wildly popular children’s book. Other than Gravity, only two are wholly original productions, and of them, one is the disposable rom-com Couples Retreat, and the other is, yep, DreamWorks Animation’s Shark Tale, i.e. the one where Angelina Jolie played a sexy fish.

The point being, Hollywood does not like to make original movies. They don’t tend to hand the keys to the bank vault to filmmakers with only one other major hit on their resume like Alfonso Cuarón (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban) and say, “Go ahead, invent how you’re going to make this movie, take four-and-a-half years to do it, and it’s totally fine that you don’t put any sound or aliens in your movie set in space.” It’s that last word, in fact, that will likely be the one that studio executives cling to when discussing this movie in the coming weeks: “What space movie scripts do we have lying around?”

But the reason Gravity was a creative and commercial success ultimately has little to do with the fact that it’s set in space. In an interview with Wired, Cuarón said that space and space exploration largely served as “a metaphor for the main character,” a woman emotionally crippled by grief. Once Cuarón, who wrote the film with his son Jonas Cuarón, decided to set this woman’s story in space, he worked tirelessly to make his film unlike any other space movie anyone had ever seen.

It may be an old lesson, but it always bears repeating: If Hollywood studios want to have more successes like Gravity, they need to let more filmmakers take unique, time consuming, and possibly expensive creative risks, rather than attempting to recreate the results of another filmmaker’s creative risks. Just look at Sandra Bullock’s recent career renaissance: Gravity, The Heat, The Blind Side, The Proposal — a space-set thriller, an R-rated buddy cop comedy, a wholesome and heartwarming family drama, and a high-concept romantic comedy. None of them are anything like the other, and there isn’t a sequel, prequel, or remake among them.


Here are the estimated top 10 box office figures for Friday to Sunday, courtesy of Box Office Mojo:

1. Gravity* — $55.5 million
2. Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 — $21.5 million
3. Runner Runner* — $7.6 million
4. Prisoners — $5.7 million
5. Rush — $4.4 million
6. Don Jon — $4.2 million
7. Baggage Claim — $4.1 million
8. Insidious Chapter 2 — $3.9 million
9. Pulling Strings* — $2.5 million
10. Enough Said — $2.2 million

*Opening weekend

Link

PORCA VACCA!!!!

Bet he has a few casamigos to celebrate, well done George and Sandra

it's here in the media too

CONGRATS !!!!!!!!!!!!!

hip hip hurray

   

Yeah Mr. Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson, put that in your pipe and smoke it!

 

Wonder if George had any backend points. Hmmm?  

it would be fun if not

but I remember it's usually like it
he ask a bit
and then a percentage
good or bad....

this time.... let me think....
sounds good !  

Great opening week for Gravity.

Other names do not even sound good

Well so far they budget number was reported as $80 million and then at $100 million. No matter which, it still hasn't made back the money it spent but if the reviews and word of mouth continues strong, then they should do well. It's not been released in too many other countries yet, has it?

I didn't check the release dates for major markets overseas. Right now, too lazy to find out. HA!