GRAVITY BLASTS OFF TO NEW OCTOBER RECORD

Everything the experts thought that they knew about the October box office turned out to be wrong. Ticket sales for the Sandra Bullock-George Clooney space thriller Gravity soared past every other film ever released in October to set a new record for the month of $55.55 million, according to studio estimates. Most analysts had predicted an opening in the $35-40 million range for the Warner Bros. release, with several pointing out that no non-sequel live-action film had ever opened above $40 million. Virtually all of the gross came from 3D and IMAX venues. Analysts’ predictions for the Justin Timberlake-Ben Affleck drama Runner Runner were also off — but in the opposite direction. Most figured that the 20th Century Fox movie would debut with around $10 million. Instead, it opened with just $7.6 million to place third. (It had a far better opening overseas, where it took in $23.4 million.) Last week’s No. 1 movie, Sony’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs, came in second, dropping 50 percent to $21 million.

The top ten films for the weekend, according to studio estimates compiled by Box Office Mojo:
1. Gravity, $55.55 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, $4.8 million; 6. Don Jon, $4.16 million; 7. Baggage Claim, $4.12 million; 8. Insidious: Chapter 2, $3.87 million; 9. Pulling Strings, $2.5 million; 10. Enough Said, $2.15 million.