Well, would you look at that. Paul Greengrass’ middling docudrama Captain Phillips failed to displace Gravity at the box office over the weekend, earning $26 million as Alfonso Cuaron’s space-survival thriller remained strong with $44.3 million.

What’s really intriguing is that Gravity barely stumbled; that second-weekend take marks a drop of just 21% from last week’s opening, whereas a 40 to 50% loss is the norm. This sort of momentum means the movie’s on the verge of becoming a phenomenon; I’m very curious to see what happens next weekend.

Also under “good news”, that awful new adaptation of Romeo & Juliet flat-out tanked, earning just $509,000 despite opening on 461 screens. Not that this marks a sea change in audience tastes or anything, but I’m happy to see people avoiding crap and seeking out the good stuff for a change.