Claiming the top spot and setting an opening weekend record for the month of October was the outer space survival thriller “Gravity.”

The movie earned $55.8 million and was produced for roughly $100 million, making its opening similar to that of a summer blockbuster. It also marked the highest start ever for stars Sandra Bullock and George Clooney. Knowing that the film is a rare breed of a prestige picture with broad commercial appeal, Warner Bros. Entertainment was able to capitalize on this through its strong marketing effort.

Advertisements focused on the film’s stunning visuals and presented it as a thrilling, action-packed adventure — not just another sci-fi movie. In doing so, Warner Bros. was able to convince audiences that “Gravity” is an experience worthy of the premium price of 3-D and Imax. In fact, a mind-boggling 80 percent of this weekend’s gross came from 3-D screens.

Despite it being an original film with no built-in audience, “Gravity” capitalized on sensational reviews, strong star power (Clooney and Bullock) and awards buzz. This film shows that it is still possible to make an original film with broad commercial appeal.

Another new release this weekend that also set a record — albeit not a good one — was 20^th Century Fox’s “Runner, Runner.” The film managed to claim the title of one of the worst openings ever for a movie showing in more than 3,000 theaters. Despite the combined star power of Justin Timberlake and Ben Affleck, the film stumbled into third place with just $7.7 million and was panned by critics and audiences alike.

In addition to bad buzz, it also did not help that the film was targeting adult audiences, which put the film in direct competition with “Gravity.” With a terrible “C” grade on CinemaScore, any notion of word-of-mouth buzz was out of the question. It would be surprising to see Fox recoup its $30 million investment in the film.

The final new release in the top 10 came from Lionsgate Entertainment’s Spanish-language comedy, “Pulling Strings,” which debuted to $2.5 million from just 387 locations. This marks the second Spanish-language hit for Lionsgate this year. The studio first released “Instructions Not Included” in late August with a debut of $7.8 million, and has since gone on to gross more than $68 million — not bad for a film that only cost $5 million to make.

Though “Pulling Strings” will most likely not have the commercial success of “Instructions Not Included,” its terrific “A+” grade on CinemaScore will maintain the film’s profitability in the coming weeks.

Published on October 8, 2013 at 9:07 pm