weekend box office

The weekend following a major holiday is always a little slow. The boost from vacationing moviegoers is gone, so everyone tends to take a major dip. Some films end up okay. Some die on the vine. This weekend saw two films weather the storm perfectly fine and one new release collapse on the starting line.

Two new dramas hit theaters this weekend, hoping to peel moviegoers away from the twin smashes currently ruling the box office, 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'Frozen.'

In one of the biggest holiday weekends of all time, the combined might of 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' and 'Frozen' proved that yes, ladies can star in major blockbuster movies. We'll see if this lesson sticks (it won't), but between those two and the surprisingly female-friendly 'Thor: The Dark World,' this was a great weekend if you were looking for quality family entertainment that didn't

So, have you heard of this 'Hunger Games' thing? No? In that case, welcome to Earth! There's also this Vince Vaughn movie about a sperm donor, but no one really cares. This weekend, it's all about Katniss.

There was no question of whether or not 'Thor: The Dark World' was going to open at number one this weekend. Of course it was. The big question was whether it would get a post-'Avengers' bump, or if it would do similar business to its 2011 predecessor. Question answered: it got a bump and a pretty good one, too.

It's a weekend filled with superpowers, as costumed heroes wielding magically-infused hammers return to theaters, along with a family of men who can travel through time.

If you were wondering what it would take to finally shove 'Gravity' out of the number one spot at the box office, the answer is Johnny Knoxville as an elderly man with a foul mouth and penchant for sustaining groin injuries. After nearly a month at the top, Alfonso Cuaron's science fiction spectacle fell to number two, dethroned by 'Bad Grandpa.'

This weekend brings two new flicks to theaters. The first is a crime thriller with a big-name cast, top-notch talent behind the camera, and dreams of Oscars. The other is, well, very different from that.

For the third weekend in a row, 'Gravity' dominated the box office, taking no prisoners in its quest to become one of 2013's most deserving blockbusters. However, its tremendous success has been at the expense of a handful of other films, which have been crushed in Alfonso Cuaron's titanic wake.

This weekend we get a remake of a '70s horror classic, Arnold and Stallone finally punching and shooting things together onscreen ('80s action-movie fans, rejoice!) and a based-on-true-events political thriller about that creepy-looking Wikileaks guy.

Despite a few new releases, this weekend was all about last week's champion. 'Gravity' held on to the number one spot with all of its might, showing that Alfonso Cuaron's space thriller may have some of the strongest legs of any major 2013 release.

When a movie is sold as being the next incredible cinematic experience that will change the way we watch movies, expectations are huge. Audiences may scoff. It could all backfire. But Alfonso Cuaron's 'Gravity' lived up to the hype and audiences responded in kind, giving it the biggest opening ever for a non-sequel October release.