GRAVITY STILL UP; BOX OFFICE, DOWN

Once again the force of Gravity held down ticket sales for most other films in theaters over the weekend. The Warner Bros. hit may have earned $30.03 million in its third weekend, down 31 percent from the previous weekend, according to final figures released on Monday, but its closest rival, Sony’s Captain Phillips, earned $16.41 million, just 54 percent of that amount. It edged out Sony’s Carrie with $16.10 million. Everything else in the top ten failed to hit $10 million, including newcomers Escape Plan from Summit Entertainment, which opened with $9.89 million, and DreamWorks/Disney’s The Fifth Estate, which flopped with $1.67 million, the worst result for any film opening in wide release this year. The result was that the overall box-office total once again fell 18.59 percent below last year’s for the comparable week, when Paramount’s Paranormal Activity 4 debuted with $29 million and all other films in the top five earned more than $10 million.