“The Martian” Holds Top Spot At The Box Office

Warner Bros.’ “Pan”, – an origin story of the boy who never grows up starring Hugh Jackman and Rooney Mara – had a disappointing opening weekend in theatres.

The Martian was on a planet of its own atop the North American box office charts, taking in an estimated US$37 million (S$51.63 million) over the weekend, industry data showed Sunday. The tale of Philippe Petit’s tight-rope walk between the towers of the World Trade Center earned $3.7 million this weekend, bringing its total to $6.4 million. Joe Wright’s Neverland reimagining was also panned by critics, scrounging only 23% positive reviews on aggregate site RottenTomatoes.com and a discouraging 53% approval from moviegoers.

“It’s an overall slow weekend on tap, but a great opportunity for “The Martian” to continue to wow audiences”, noted Paul Dergarabedian, senior media analyst with Rentrak.

In second place, Hotel Transylvania 2 continued to offer family-friendly frights with $20.3 million, bringing its three-week tally to an impressive $116.8 million.

Sony’s high-wire spectacle “The Walk” also stumbled in its first weekend in wide release, after debuting on IMAX screens last week. Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars in film directed by Robert Zemeckis.

It’s now the first autumn release to surpass the $US100 million domestic box office mark.

Ridley Scott’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s same-titled novel is still riding high, keeping Matt Damon on Mars for a second week, bringing the sum to a total of $108.71 million in two weeks. “Pan” came in at No. 3. Playing in just four theaters in New York and Los Angeles, the voluble tech drama written by Aaron Sorkin earned $521,000 with a per-screen average of $130,000. Starring Michael Fassbender as Jobs and co-starring Kate Winslet and Seth Rogen, the film recorded the best average of 2015, easily outpacing former champion “Sicario,” which made $66,800 per location in its opening weekend in September.

Rounding out the top five, The Intern and Sicario nabbed fourth and fifth place with $8.7 million and $7.4 million, respectively.

“This is a movie everyone’s talking about, and now they’re going to be talking about it even more”, Dergarabedian said.

Final numbers are expected Monday.

But over at 20th Century Fox things are different.