“Alien” visionary Ridley Scott directs Matt Damon as the stranded astronaut, Mark Watney.
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“The Martian” is a powerful film that shows off the talent of its renowned cast and crew and allows Damon to give one of the best performances of the year, and of his career.
The Cabin in the Woods’ Drew Goddard carefully adapts Weir’s novel, excising several of its complications, which would only have made the film longer, not stronger. It was a blessed rollout.
Rounding out the 10 most-popular movies in the US and Canada were “The Intern” (11.6 million dollars), “Maze Runner: The Scorch Trials” (7.7 million), “Black Mass” (5.9 million), “Everest” (5.5 million), “The Visit” (3.9 million), “War Room” (2.8 million) and “The ideal Guy” (2.4 million).
The Matt Damon-led space thriller is just short of another film about astronauts lost in space, “Gravity“, which holds the record for biggest October opening with a $55.7 million debut in 2013.
Damon’s performance is humorous and dedicated, although famous lines from the film such as “in your face, Neil Armstrong”, make for tacky scenes in an overall well-written script. Both book and movie try to be as true to the science as possible – and, in fact, the science and the fiction around missions to Mars are rapidly converging. Fifty six percent of ticket-buyers were men while 72% of the opening weekend crowd was over the age of 25. “Having audience reaction be the same as critics is as rare as surviving on Mars”. It’s so much more interesting to watch a smart, confident, and capable person use their wit and will to survive than it is to follow along with a few unprepared crybaby as they stumble through a situation beyond their control like Sandra Bullock did in Gravity.
Yet October is proving especially busy with well-reviewed studio releases seeking broad audiences.
“You need word of mouth for this type of film and that’s what this weekend was all about”, said Sony distribution head Rory Bruer, who granted it’s a “crowded field”. His latest film, “The Martian”, is quite refreshing in that it in no way, shape or form appears to be pushing any sort of ideological agenda.
Last week’s box office champion, “Hotel Transylvania 2,” slipped to second with the estimated million. The animated sequel has earned US$90.5 million after two weeks and should cross the US$100 million mark by next weekend.
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Sicario, Denis Villeneuve’s look at the brutal of world of drug trafficking with Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, continued to expand to theaters across the nation, taking third with $12.1 million ($15.1 million total).
