Alfonso Cuaron’s Gravity, which stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney, set a new all-time October box office record with an estimated three-day total of $55.6 million.  The Oscar contender earned a mammoth 80% of its opening weekend take from 3-D screens--demonstrating that if filmmakers make 3-D an integral part of their movies (as in James Cameron’s Avatar and Cuaron’s Gravity), audiences will respond.  But Gravity received little support from other newcomers and the overall box office slipped 13.4% from the same weekend last year when Taken 2 debuted with $49.5 million.
 
With a stellar 98% positive rating from the critics on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes and a solid "A-" CinemaScore from audiences, Gravity should be around for weeks, though it will receive strong competition next week when the hostage drama Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks debuts.  The opening weekend audience for Gravity skewed slightly male (54%) and definitely older with 82% of the crowd over 25 and almost 60% over 35.  Driven by a strong marketing campaign that blanketed key TV venues, it appears that Gravity has brought many older viewers back to the cineplexes.  Its continued success may depend on attracting more young viewers in subsequent weeks.  
 
IMAX theaters contributed 20% of Gravity’s total as the film set a new October record for the giant screen venues.  The film’s 80% revenue share from 3-D showings is one of the biggest of all time and flies in the face of recent decline in 3-D attendance.  The fact that numerous critics noted how integral the 3-D effects in Gravity were to the film’s narrative certainly helped boost attendance at the pricier 3-D showings, and the film’s science fiction subject matter also helped.

Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 4-6, 2013
	Film	Weekend Gross	Screens	Avg./ Screen	Total Gross	Wk#
1	Gravity	$55,550,000	3,575	$15,538	$55,550,000	1
2	Cloudy w/ a Chance of Meatballs 2	$21,500,000	4,001	$5,374	$60,557,000	2
3	Runner Runner	$7,600,000	3,026	$2,512	$7,600,000	1
4	Prisoners	$5,700,000	3,236	$1,761	$47,880,000	3
5	Rush	$4,408,000	2,308	$1,910	$18,095,000	3
6	Don Jon	$4,160,000	2,422	$1,718	$16,077,000	2
7	Baggage Claim	$4,125,000	2,230	$1,850	$15,185,000	2
8	Insidious Chapter 2	$3,876,000	2,607	$1,487	$74,750,000	4
9	Pulling Strings	$2,500,000	387	$6,460	$2,500,000	1
10	Enough Said	$2,150,000	437	$4,920	$5,387,000	3

Last week’s winner, Sony Animation’s Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2 dropped just 36.4% as it earned an estimated $21.5 million.  Cloudy 2 still trails 2012’s Hotel Transylvania (also produced by Sony), which earned over $27.4 million during its second weekend, 
 
Fox’s gambling drama Runner Runner, which stars Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake, opened poorly, earning just $7.6 million from over 3000 venues for a measly $2,512 average.  Produced for $30 million, it appears that Runner Runner may have to make its mark on disc.  Last year four films posted 8 figure totals during this weekend, but this past weekend only the top two films made 8 digits.
 
The adult-skewing dramas Prisoners ($5.7 million), Rush ($4.4 million), and Don Jon ($4.1 million) all posted fairly modest drops, but since they were not big hits to begin with, their impact on the box office this weekend was minimal. 
 
The R-rated comedy We’re the Millers finally dropped out of the top ten in its ninth weekend in theaters.  It is finally clear that The Millers won’t quite be able to catch The Heat and win the summer of 2013 "R" rated comedy crown, but it certainly made things interesting and was one of the season’s unexpected hits.
 
Check back here next week to if Paul Greengrass’s Captain Phillips, which Sony snuck into 800 theaters this past weekend, or Robert Rodriguez’s Machete Kills, which features actress Sophie Vergara with a “machine-gun bra,” will be able to defy Gravity and top the box office charts.