Space Epic GRAVITY Wins Weekend Box Office with $55.5 Million; RUNNER RUNNER Stumbles

Sci-fi space epic GRAVITY easily drifted to the top of this weekend's box office, grossing just over $55.5 million.

The film, helmed by Alfonso Cuaron, was aiming for somewhere between $40-50 million since its release Thursday night, but managed to outdo initial expectations with big business from Imax and 3D screenings.

Academy Award winners Sandra Bullock ("The Blind Side," "The Proposal") and George Clooney ("Up in the Air," "Syriana") star in "Gravity," a heart-pounding thriller that pulls you into the infinite and unforgiving realm of deep space. The film was directed by Oscar nominee Alfonso Cuarón ("Children of Men").

Bullock plays Dr. Ryan Stone, a brilliant medical engineer on her first shuttle mission, with veteran astronaut Matt Kowalsky (Clooney) in command of his last Flight before retiring. But on a seemingly routine spacewalk, disaster strikes. The shuttle is destroyed, leaving Stone and Kowalsky completely alone-tethered to nothing but each other and spiraling out into the blackness. The deafening silence tells them they have lost any link to Earth...and any chance for rescue. As fear turns to panic, every gulp of air eats away at what little oxygen is left.

RUNNER RUNNER with Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake low-balled the box office, taking in just $7.6 million over the weekend, and coming in third. CLOUDY WITH A CHANCE OF MEATBALLS 2 grossed an additional $21.5 million, bumping its two-week total to just over $60.5 million.

Rentrak announced the top 10 box office earners for the weekend of Oct. 4-6. Check them out below!

1	Gravity	Warner Bros.	$55,550,000			$55,550,000
2	Cloudy With A Chance Of Meatballs 2	Sony	$21,500,000			$60,556,726
3	Runner Runner	20th Century Fox	$7,600,000			$7,600,000
4	Prisoners	Warner Bros.	$5,700,000			$47,879,968
5	Rush	Universal	$4,408,280			$18,094,599
6	Don Jon	Relativity Media	$4,160,000			$16,077,317
7	Baggage Claim	Fox Searchlight	$4,125,000			$15,185,081
8	Insidious Chapter 2	FilmDistrict	$3,876,000			$74,749,587
9	Pulling Strings	Lionsgate	$2,500,000			$2,500,000
10	Enough Said	Fox Searchlight	$2,150,000			$5,386,596

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