Wikileaks Drama 'The Fifth Estate' Bombs While 'Gravity' Dominates The Weekend Box Office

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange may have been worried that the biopic “The Fifth Estate” would slander him on the big screen, but that may not be a problem considering that no one showed up to see it anyway. “The Fifth Estate” bombed this weekend, while “Gravity” continued to maintain its hold over the box office.

In its third weekend at the box office, “Gravity” took in $31 million, casually settling into the No. 10 spot on the year’s highest grossing films. At this point, it’s really only a matter of time before “Gravity 2: Escape Velocity” shows up at your local cinema. Meanwhile, the horror remake “Carrie” opened in third place with a respectable $17 million gross. “Carrie” might not have taken the box office by storm, but it’s likely to make back a decent profit on its $30 million budget.

While “Gravity” maintained its hold over the box office, the Wikileaks biopic “The Fifth Estate” was dead on arrival with an abysmal opening gross of $1.7 million, the sixth-worst opening of the year. The $28 million biopic saw significant controversy after Wikileaks founder Julian Assange blasted the film as slanderous and publicly called on star Benedict Cumberbatch not to portray him onscreen. Whether or not Cumberbatch and “The Fifth Estate” accurately captured the story of Wikileaks, it seems that audiences just aren’t interested.

To put the opening of “The Fifth Estate” in perspective, the critically acclaimed drama “12 Years a Slave” opened in a scant 19 theaters this weekend and took home $960,000, more than half of what “The Fifth Estate” earned in 1,769 theaters nationwide. The harrowing portrayal of American slavery in "12 Years a Slave"' earned the film tremendous buzz after debuting at the Totonto International Film Festival, making it a frontrunner in this year’s Oscar race.

Check out the top ten movies of the weekend below, numbers courtesy of Box Office Mojo.