Box Office: ‘The Martian’ Takes Top Spot Again During Worst Movie Weekend Of 2015
Ridley Scott’s The Martian keeps chugging along as the film claimed the number one spot again this week for the second week in a row, and the fourth out of five weeks of release, topping what turned out to be the worst box office weekend of 2015, according to Brad Brevit of Box Office Mojo.
The Martian earned $11.4 million at the box office bringing its overall total to $182.8 million domestically, $428.4 million worldwide. The film is just $4.8 million short of becoming director Ridley Scott’s highest grossing domestic film of all time, and with almost assurance that The Martian will certainly appear in the top five next week behind the much anticipated James Bond installation Spectre, it is almost a lock to become so.
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. In addition to being the year’s lowest earner at the theaters, the weekend also marked the lowest grossing weekend on a Halloween weekend in 16 years, likely due to the lack of horror packed punch. Only two films at the theater this weekend even dip a toe into the genre, one of which is the weekend’s number two earner, Goosebumps, starring Tenacious D lead singer Jack Black, and based on the wildly-popular children’s horror series by R.L. Stine. Goosebumps brought in $10.2 million in its third week of release to bring its overall total haul to just over $57 million. The film has almost earned back its budget, meaning next week should propel the film into the black.
The other pseudo-horror film in theaters is the comedy zombie flick Scouts Guide To The Zombie Apocalypse, which hedged its bets on crude and vulgar R-rated comedy rather than any sort of advertising or promotional budget. The film took in a paltry $1.77 million on just over 1,500 screens, which means that the film didn’t even land a spot in the top ten, coming in at 12th place and marking it as one of many tremendous flops for the weekend; the third weekend in a row for such disappointing box office performers.
The Steven Spielberg spy thriller Bridge of Spies, starring Tom Hanks, held on strong in its third week of release bringing in just over $8 million at the box office to bring its overall total to just over $45 million. With a third week drop off of under 30 percent, it is likely that we will see the film in next week’s top five as well.
In at number five is the first new film in this week’s top 10, the Bradley Cooper comedy Burnt. The film, which sees Cooper starring as a world class chef in search of redemption after his career is derailed by drug and alcohol addiction, was a massive disappointment earning only $5 million at the box office, well below expected projections. Tre’vell Anderson of the L.A. Times reports that Erik Lomis, Chief of Distribution for The Weinstein Company, the studio behind Burnt, spoke about the disappointment of the film’s box office performance.
“It was a tough weekend and we were hoping for more. It’s just a disappointment when we all work hard on this film, a passion project, and Bradley is great in it.”
Anderson also reports that Sandra Bullock’s politically charged film Our Brand Is Crisis turned out to be another tremendous disappointment as the film fell out of the top five entirely earning only $3.4 million for its opening salvo, about half of what Jeff Goldstein, Executive Vice President at Warner Brothers expected.
“We’re proud of the movie. But I had higher expectations and we’re obviously disappointed.”
[Photo Image via 21st Century Fox]
