'Gravity' Sets Box Office Record

Not many films thus far this year have been able to exceed pre-release expectations for how well they're going to do at the box office, and those that have managed it have often been able to do so because expectations were low to begin with. "Gravity" is the rare film in 2013 that was expected to sell a lot of tickets and ended up selling even more tickets than expected.

Estimated figures show "Gravity" racking up gross ticket sales of more than $55 million over its debut weekend, a total that would set a record for October openings. Predictions for the film's box office were optimistic but missed the mark by tens of millions of dollars; most predictions had "Gravity" earning $35 million, with some analysts and commentators suggesting that the total take could go as high as $40 million.

What's certain is that most people who went to the movies this weekend chose to see "Gravity," with the exception of families with children too young for the space thriller; the weekend's second place film was "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2," last week's number-one. This week's other new wide release, Justin Timberlake's "Runner Runner," was largely ignored by audiences; it took in just $7.6 million.