That indicates a three-day start in the $5-$6 million range.
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The Martian topped 2015’s lowest grossing weekend at the box office, which is odd for a Halloween weekend, especially one where the holiday falls on a Saturday. Let’s get to it… The Oscar hopeful (a likely best picture contender) has pulled in $182.8 million total, closing in on Gladiator ($187.7 million) as director Ridley Scott’s highest earning film to date.
One movie that did manage to rise above the fray is “Goosebumps”, bringing in an estimated .2 million in its third weekend out. The animated comedy has now brought in $156 million domestically in six weeks and $323.5 million worldwide on a budget of $80 million. The Martian is wrapping up its fifth weekend in release, four of which have been spent at number one. On its first day in 3,003 locations, the culinary drama starring Bradley Cooper claimed an estimated $1.8 million.
Not even in fourth do we have a new release or even one of last weekend’s new releases for that matter.
The film only managed a disappointing $5m in its opening week, while The Martian stays strong at the top with $11.4m.
Two weekends ago, the PG-rated Goosebumps debuted in first place, and it’s grossed $45.5 million domestically.
Outside of the top five, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is also opening in wide-release. It is looking likely to finish off with $215 million or so stateside. Audiences also disliked it, giving it a CinemaScore of C-.
The two movies face similar problems at the box office, besides the unfortunate timing of Halloween. Meanwhile, a few movies have consistently crowded the box office races for the past month or so – an uncommonly steady performance. It’s the second film to play as part of Paramount’s new flexible release schedule, which attempts to shorten the window between a movie’s theatrical release and its home release. Couple this with ALOHA (not his fault, but still) and he’s having a very bad year. I don’t think this can be looked at as a failure from this perspective as I would think a second, and possibly earlier, attempt next year may be a smart move.
In expansion, A24’s Room brought in $269,500 from 49 theaters.
This weekend fell 22.5% below a year ago, when Ouija finished #1 in what turned out to be the sixth worst weekend of 2014. The massive run for The Martian is going to get pushed down next weekend, though, as the new James Bond flick and the Peanuts movie are going to dominate.
Next week belongs to Bond, James Bond.
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Additional records were broken in the Netherlands where Spectre took in 3.3 million Euro ($3.7 million USD), surpassing the record set by Skyfall. Her previous nadir was $4.65 million for 1996’s Two if By Sea. It is unlikely to make much more than $30 million in the USA at this point. The film brought in $4.8 million for a drop of 56%.
