The Martian Holds Onto First During Lowest Grossing Weekend Of 2015

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.

The Matt Damon sci-fi film generated $11.4 million at USA and Canadian cinemas, Rentrak Corp. said Sunday in an e-mailed statement. At this point is is pacing well ahead of last year’s space epic Interstellar domestically, but a bit behind Gravity. In its sixth week of release, the film, showing again its remarkable staying power, brought home just over $5.8 million at the box office bringing its overall total to a staggering $156 million. It’s now officially the highest-grossing live-action Jack Black film since Tropic Thunder in 2008. Like the top two it held on nicely with a drop of just 29%. Her previous nadir was $4.65 million for 1996’s Two if By Sea. The zombie comedy managed only $1.77 million and audiences that caught the film on opening night rated it a “B-” with CinemaScore. Even the almost universally reviled The Terminal took in just above $13 million in its second week. The Weinstein Company had a big problem with this film; with its cast (including Cooper and American Sniper co-star Sienna Miller), marketing and low-drama concept, Burnt looked like a prestige/awards film. The adult-skewing drama has a 31 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and it’s expected to open between $6 and $7 million. Spectre is the first film to ever top a $100,000 per-location average, bringing in $5 million on 47 IMAX screens. It is unlikely to make much more than $30 million in the United States at this point. Paranormal Activity: The Ghost Dimension only pocketed $3.45M. The lustre is most certainly off that particular franchise. This is also another bust for director David Gordon Green whose last true hit was Pineapple Express in 2008, though I’m sure many would argue films such as George Washington and 2014’s Joe are where Green truly shines, not his mass audience features.

Guillermo del Toro’s Crimson Peak softened its fall in its third week, down just one spot to #9 with $3.1 million. Currently, the film that cost $108 million has earned $182.8 million stateside and now has pushed the worldwide gross beyond $425 million. At this point it should finish with $35 million in the USA, and is still unlikely to make a profit based on its $55 million budget. But at least they managed to crack the top ten.

No new wide releases are expected to break the $10 million mark over the weekend, despite the star power of Bradley Cooper as an arrogant chef in “Burnt” and Sandra Bullock as a high-powered political operative in “Our Brand Is Crisis”. That number is well below the $5 million most had it pegged for.

Outside of the top five, Scouts Guide to the Zombie Apocalypse is also opening in wide-release.

Beginning with the domestic box office, Fox has a bonafide hit on their hands as The Martian finished #1 for the second weekend in a row and the fourth weekend out of the five it has been in theaters. Note: the numbers below will be updated as they become final.