As if its first week of box office results across the pond didn’t make clear, Gravity is now officially a phenomenon. With a less than a 22% drop, it scored the biggest second weekend non-holiday hold for a film opening to more than $55 million. Yes, go ahead and look impressed. The soaring success of the film and $44.2 million extra dollars meant it clung easily to the top of the US charts and passed $123.4m since release.
Still, Tom Hanks, Paul Greengrass and Sony will be happy with Captain Phillips’ solid second-place launch, as the true-life pirate tale arrived to $26 million. It pushed **Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2 **down to third, with the ‘toon sequel earning $14.2 million. Machete Kills, however, failed to leave a mark on audiences, opening to a desultory $3.8 million and serious thumbs down reactions from those who did turn out to see it. Will we get Machete Kills Again (or whatever any third instalment ends up being called)? That’ll depend on Robert Rodriguez scraping the cash together. Fifth place, meanwhile, went to Runner Runner, which sank 51% with $3.7 million.
Prisoners was sixth with $3.6 million, while Insidious Chapter 2 actually rose one place, clambering to seventh and $2.6 million. Rush fell to eighth with $2.3 million, with Don Jon ninth ($2.3 million) and B****aggage Claim in 10th earning $2 million.
To see an astronaut take on pirates in the full chart listings, head to Box Office Mojo.