Alfonso Cuaron’s Sci-fi thriller Gravity took on Captain Phillips at the box office on Friday and came out soaring high above Tom Hanks and the competition. Captain Phillips easily secured second place on Friday, while holdover Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 ate up everyone below it to land in third.
Gravity, starring Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, has held strongly over the past week since its debut last weekend and has already crossed over $100 million in worldwide box office business. On Friday in North America, Gravity added $12.7 million to its total and pushed domestic earnings to $91.9 million. It will cross $100 million in North America on Friday and is pacing to finish the weekend around $45 million. That represents less than a 20 percent drop from its opening weekend and what would be the lowest percentage drop of any tentpole that opened over $50 million in its second weekend of release.
Captain Phillips would have been the top dog this weekend had Gravity lost some of its pull. Instead, the Paul Greengrass thriller about a ship captain whose vessel is boarded by Somali pirates put up $8.2 million on Friday, thanks in part to the pull of Tom Hanks and solid reviews. It is charting a course for a three-day opening around $25 million.
Sony Animation’s Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 kicked off its third weekend of release with a third place finish at $3.6 million. A weekend total somewhere around $12 million seems likely. To date the film has earned $67.4 million.
The other newcomer alongside Captain Phillips, Machete Kills from Robert Rodriguez, debuted in fourth place on Friday with $1.4 million. It will be lucky to hit $4 or $5 million for the weekend, a far cry from the $11.4 million Machete put up in its opening frame. Machete Kills should find more interested eyeballs when it bows on Blu-ray and DVD.
Fox’s dud Runner Runner ran its way into fifth place on Friday with $1.1 million. At $11.5 million through eight days, the only place this film will be running next is off to home video.
Be sure to stop back tomorrow and see if Gravity climbed higher than $45 million, and whether race Tom Hanks as Captain Phillips was able to weather the Gravity storm and see an increase in business on Saturday and Sunday.
