The estimated weekend total for The Martian, which is based on a self-published novel by space science geek Andy Weir, is just $800,000 short of the October record opening held by Alphonso Cuaron’s Gravity ($55.8 million), and it is possible that The Martian could claim the record if Sunday attendance for the film, which has a stellar 94% positive rating on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, beats the estimates. Overseas The Martian, which cost $108 million to produce, earned $45.2 million for a global opening weekend total of $100.2 million.
The Martian managed to match Gravity’s opening weekend numbers in spite of the fact that The Martian has a running time of 141 minutes (versus Gravity’s 91 minutes), which translates into fewer shows per day. The Martian also accomplished its near record opening without the aid of IMAX, which had a deal to open Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk. One factor that helped The Martian was 3-D showings, which accounted for 45% of the film’s weekend total. The big question is, does The Martian have a chance to match the Oscar-winning Gravity’s domestic total of $274 million? That would appear unlikely, but given the handicaps The Martian has already overcome, it would appear to have some sort of a chance, especially if it can snag some awards of its own.
Opening weekend audiences for The Martian skewed male (56%) and older with 72% of the audience over 25, and they gave the film a solid “A” CinemaScore. There have been realistic hard science fiction film hits of various dimensions through the years from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001, to Doug Trumbull’s Silent Running, Ron Howard’s Apollo 13, and Cuaron’s Gravity, but “hard, near-future sci-fi” has never been the dominant stream of genre in Hollywood, so the hard sci-fi subgenre can always use another hit.
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Weekend Box Office (Studio Estimates): October 2-4, 2015 |
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|
Film |
Weekend Gross |
Screens |
Avg./Screen |
Total Gross |
Wk# |
|
|
1 |
The Martian |
$55,000,000 |
3,831 |
$14,357 |
$55,000,000 |
1 |
|
2 |
Hotel Transylvania 2 |
$33,000,000 |
3,754 |
$8,791 |
$90,541,765 |
2 |
|
3 |
Sicario |
$12,075,000 |
2,620 |
$4,609 |
$15,076,295 |
3 |
|
4 |
The Intern |
$11,620,000 |
3,320 |
$3,500 |
$36,523,892 |
2 |
|
5 |
Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials |
$7,650,000 |
3,319 |
$2,305 |
$63,241,124 |
3 |
|
6 |
Black Mass |
$5,905,000 |
2,768 |
$2,133 |
$52,521,030 |
3 |
|
7 |
Everest |
$5,510,000 |
3,009 |
$1,831 |
$33,181,310 |
3 |
|
8 |
The Visit |
$3,950,000 |
2,296 |
$1,720 |
$57,695,090 |
4 |
|
9 |
War Room |
$2,800,000 |
1,746 |
$1,604 |
$60,544,613 |
6 |
|
10 |
The Perfect Guy |
$2,400,000 |
1,364 |
$1,760 |
$52,615,190 |
4 |
With virtually no competition for the family audience, the animated Hotel Transylvania 2 dipped just 31.9% as it earned $33 million to bring its domestic total to $90.5 million. And with no competition until Sony’s Goosebumps bows in two weeks, don’t expect Hotel Transylvania 2 to slip too far next weekend either.
The jump from the arthouse circuit to wide release can be daunting. Many films do well in limited release with their appeal to specialized audiences, but falter when shoved into the mainstream, but Denis Villeneuve’s well-reviewed drug war thriller Sicario leapt from 59 theaters to 2,620 where it earned a respectable $12 million with a passable $4,609 per-venue average. The key for Sicario will be maintaining those screens in the face of increasing competition from a couple of adult-skewing films opening in the coming weeks (Steve Jobs and Our Brand Is Crisis).
Nancy Meyer’s adult-skewing comedy The Intern had a good second week, dropping just 34.5% as it earned $11.6 million to bring its domestic total to $36 million. Fifth place went to Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials, which dipped 46.4% in its third weekend as it earned $7.6 million to bring its domestic total to $63.2 million.
All the rest of the films in the top ten posted under 50% declines except for Everest, Baltasar Kormakur’s mountain climbing/disaster film that opened very well in IMAX theaters, but has dropped like a stone since it went wide. So far the $55 million production, which tumbled 58.4%, has made just $33.2 million here in North America (and more than triple that overseas).
Speaking of IMAX exclusive debuts, Robert Zemeckis’ The Walk, which recreates French daredevil Phillipe Petit’s 1974 high wire cross between the Twin Towers, flopped, earning just $1.6 million from its bow, compared with the $7.4 million that Everest earned in its IMAX debut. Why has The Walk, which has an 86% approval rating from the critics surveyed on Rotten Tomatoes, fared so poorly? Well the critics have panned the film’s opening half, while waxing poetic about the stunning climax, which may have put off some—and reports of audience members getting motion sickness certainly didn’t help either. But Everest’s successful IMAX bow, didn’t translate into mainstream success, maybe The Walk will go the other way. The Walk goes wide next week, which should provide a better barometer, one way or the other, on its prospects, though the film’s modest $35 million price tag would appear to preclude any losses.
Be sure to check back here next week for the debut of Joe Wright’s Pan, the most expensive film ever to open in October (it was supposed to debut in June, but wasn’t “ready” for its primetime opportunity), as well as the limited release debut of the Aaron Sorkin/Danny Boyle/Michael Fassbender Steve Jobs biopic.
