Box Office: Ridley Scott’s ‘The Martian’ Orbits Near October Record With $54 Million Launch
Has the curse of Mars movies been broken? It sure looks that way, box office wise, thanks to the terrific opening of Ridley Scott’s optimistic, crowd-pleasing “The Martian” starring Matt Damon which brought in a terrific $54.3 million this weekend. And October seems to be a great launching pad for action dramas set in outer space. “The Martian” fell just shy of the $55.7 million opening Alfonso Cuaron’s “Gravity,” the current highest-grossing October film record holder, but between the success of these two films and Christopher Nolan’s “Interstellar” it feels like space exploration is hitting its stride on the big screen of late with audiences. An A- Cineimscore likely means “The Martian” will keep packing them in for weeks to come. Globally, the film had a $100 million-plus weekend and it still has big markets like China, Japan and Russia to open in. After a few stumbles, Matt Damon has reestablished his stardom in a big way with “The Martian” marking the second biggest...