Damon Finds Comfort on Mars as “The Martian” Wins Weekend

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT September 25-27, 2015(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The Martian ($55.0 million)2. Hotel Transylvania 2 ($33.0 million)3. Sicario ($12.0 million)4. The Intern ($11.6 million)5. Maze Runner 2 ($7.6 million)

The Martian was so close yet so far. The crowd-pleasing sci-fi film starring Matt Damon opened far and away in first place. But it's $55 million wasn't quite enough to top that other crowd-pleasing sci-fi film from 2013: Gravity. That Sandra Bullock flick still holds the record for October openings with $55.8 million. Still, that's a major debut for something that's not a comic book movie or sequel. It earned a solid A from audiences, so expect it to be one of the biggest hits of the fall.

Hotel Transylvania 2 fell only 32 percent, which puts at nearly $90 million so far. That's tracking around $15 million higher than the original. And with no new animated movies until The Peanuts Movie in early November, Hotel Transylvania 2 should remain big with families until then.

Sicario expanded strongly, but had to compete with The Martian, which hampered its success some. Still, it's likely to stick around given its great reviews and thought-provoking ending. This is a movie you'll want to recommend to your friends just so you can have conversations about it. The Intern also had a modest slide, but again, there's virtually no competition in the romantic comedy market right now. The Scorch Trials rounded out the Top 5, but the sequel is tracking around $10 million behind the original Maze Runner.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: He Named Me Malala, Davis Guggenheim's documentary on the young Nobel Peace Prize winner and activitst. It averaged $14,000 on four screens.

- The Walk might be taking a hike soon. Robert Zemeckis' feature adaptation of the incredible documentary Man on Wire, opened exclusively at IMAX screens, but stumbled out of the gate with only $1.9 million since opening Wednesday. It will go wide next weekend, but don't expect audiences to flock.

- It only took five years for the period drama Shanghai to make it to U.S. theaters (it opened in China in 2010), but audiences stayed far, far away. It opened on more than 100 screens but only averaged $256.

Next week: The only major wide release is Pan, Joe Wright's long-delayed re-telling of Peter Pan. Wright is a magnificent director, but no one really needed another version of this story, and early reviews from the UK indicate it's a mess. I'm predicting a gigantic flop, with the film opening in second place with only $18 million.

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About Kip Mooney

Kip Mooney
Like many film critics born during and after the 1980s, my hero is Roger Ebert. The man was already the best critic in the nation when he won the Pulitzer in 1975, but his indomitable spirit during and after his recent battle with cancer keeps me coming back to read not only his reviews but his insightful commentary on the everyday. But enough about a guy you know a lot about. I knew I was going to be a film critic—some would say a snob—in middle school, when I had to voraciously defend my position that The Royal Tenenbaums was only a million times better than Adam Sandler’s remake of Mr. Deeds. From then on, I would seek out Wes Anderson’s films and avoid Sandler’s like the plague. Still, I like to think of myself as a populist, and I’ll be just as likely to see the next superhero movie as the next Sundance sensation. The thing I most deplore in a movie is laziness. I’d much rather see movies with big ambitions try and fail than movies with no ambitions succeed at simply existing. I’m also a big advocate of fun-bad movies like The Room and most of Nicolas Cage’s work. In the past, I’ve written for The Dallas Morning News and the North Texas Daily, which I edited for a semester. I also contributed to Dallas-based Pegasus News, which in the circle of life, is now part of The Dallas Morning News, where I got my big break in 2007. Eventually, I’d love to write and talk about film full-time, but until that’s a viable career option, I work as an auditor for Wells Fargo. I hope to one day meet my hero, go to the Toronto International Film Festival, and compete on Jeopardy. Until then, I’m excited to share my love of film with you.

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