‘Martian’ Staves Off ‘Pan’ in Unheated Box Office Battlew

By Kip Mooney • On • In News News 0

BOX OFFICE REPORT October 9-11, 2015(estimates from BoxOfficeMojo.com)

TOP 51. The Martian ($37.0 million)2. Hotel Transylvania 2 ($20.3 million)3. Pan ($15.5 million)4. The Intern ($8.6 million)5. Sicario ($7.3 million)

The Martian kept floating in space, staying at No. 1 for a second weekend with an estimated $37 million. That already puts it over its budget, and puts it just outside the top 20 for the year in only its first 10 days. It should easily become one of the top 10 movies of the year, at least until the big guns (Hunger Games, Star Wars) come out around the holidays.

Hotel Transylvania 2 remained at No. 2, becoming yet another animated hit. That was enough to keep Pan at No. 3, earning a completely humiliating $15.5 million. For one of the biggest-budgeted films of the year, that makes it one of 2015's biggest flops, right up there with Jupiter Ascending and Fantastic Four.

The Intern continued to hold on very well, dropping only 26 percent in its third weekend. It's now just shy of $50 million. Sicario also held up well, but it's been greatly overshadowed by The Martian. At this point, despite its great reviews, it probably won't match the $61 million made by director Denis Villeneuve's breakthrough film Prisoners. That is, unless Oscar buzz for Emily Blunt and Benicio Del Toro heats up.

Outside the top 5: - This Weekend's Indie Champ: Steve Jobs, Danny Boyle's biopic on the Apple founder, blew away every other limited release this year. It averaged an astonishing $130,250 on four screens. It will add a few more cities next week, before going wide on the 23rd.

- Goodbye Mr. Loser is a big winner. The Chinese comedy played on only 22 screens, but averaged $15,909.

- The drama Trash is living up to its name. Despite boasting an Oscar-nominated director (Stephen Daldry) and an international cast, the film got dreadful reviews overseas, so distributor Focus (part of Universal) buried it. Opening on only 17 screens, it made only $10,000. 

Next week: The fall movie season really gets cutthroat. Steven Spielberg's Bridge of Spies for the grown-ups, Guillermo del Toro's Crimson Peak for discerning horror fans and an adaptation of Goosebumps for the kiddos (even though the most avid readers of that series probably has kids of their own). I think Bridge of Spies pulls off the No. 1, but just barely, with $28 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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