“Gravity,” a space thriller starring Sandra Bullock, reasserted the drawing power of 3-D as it took in $55.6 million at the domestic box office and another $27.4 million in international markets for Warner Brothers. over the weekend. An overwhelming share of ticket sales came from 3-D screens and large-format Imax showings, in the United States and abroad. That reversed a trend that had seen 3-D falter, particularly in domestic theaters.
“Gravity,” in which Ms. Bullock and George Clooney play astronauts caught in an orbital disaster, trades heavily on its realism. With its opening, which led the domestic box office, and a strong critical reception, the film established itself as a leading contender in the developing Oscar race while bringing an adult audience to 3-D screens, much as “Avatar” did in 2009.
Another Oscar contender, “Captain Phillips,” which stars Tom Hanks, competed with sneak previews in 800 locations, in advance of its opening on Friday. Sony Pictures said that film, about the hijacking of a freighter by Somali pirates, sold out theaters in Los Angeles, New York and elsewhere, and scored well with a largely adult audience that will get its first look at a number of ambitious Hollywood movies, including “The Fifth Estate” and “12 Years a Slave” in coming weeks.
According to Rentrak, a data firm that tracks box-office results, Sony’s “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs 2” ranked second for the weekend, with about $21.5 million in domestic ticket sales, while “Runner Runner,” a crime drama from 20th Century Fox, was a distant third, with about $7.6 million in domestic sales. The total weekend domestic box office fell to about $125 million, down about 12.1 percent, from $142.2 million in the same period last year, Rentrak said. The top films during the same weekend last year were “Taken 2,” “Hotel Transylvania” and “Pitch Perfect.”
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