“The Martian” came close to beating fellow space film “Gravity” for the best October opening but couldn’t quite make it. “Gravity” opened at $55.7 while “The Martian” pulled in $54.3 million. While not a record breaker it is still one of the top movies for both star Matt Damon and director Ridley Scott.
“Sicario” expanded into a nationwide release and performed very well. When it initially opened it made an average of $65k at each of the 6 theaters it played in. “The Walk” tried to mimic the release of “Everest” and failed. It made only $1.5 million and was in far more theaters, it did succeed in making people throw up watching it though.
| TW | Title | Studio | Weekend Gross | % Change | Total Gross | Budget* | Week # | ||||
| 1 | The Martian | Fox | $54,308,575 | – | $54,308,575 | $108 | 1 | ||||
| 2 | Hotel Transylvania 2 | Sony | $33,192,596 | -31.5% | $90,734,361 | – | 2 | ||||
| 3 | Sicario | LGF | $12,148,041 | +607.4% | $15,149,336 | $30 | 3 | ||||
| 4 | The Intern | WB | $11,685,064 | -34.1% | $36,588,956 | – | 2 | ||||
| 5 | Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials | Fox | $7,804,991 | -45.3% | $63,396,115 | $61 | 3 | ||||
A quick note on budgets and dollar figures:
Films making back their budgets is a good sign, but that is just the money to film. It doesn’t include distribution and marketing. Marketing can cost as much as a film. That big Superbowl spot is spendy. So take that into account when judging a film’s success. Hitting $100 million isn’t the same as it once was.
All dollar amounts in the top 5 come from estimates based on ticket sales unless noted otherwise. Occasionally this article will be published when actual results come out, which is usually late Monday afternoon. For more about this and other ins and outs of movie tracking click here.