The Martian makes $55m debut

Ridley Scott’s epic 3D sci-fi movie The Martian has topped the Box Office.

The space drama sees Matt Damon take the lead as an astronaut left for dead on Mars. The film took an impressive $55 million on its opening weekend to take the number one spot.

The production has an impressive roster of actors including Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Jeff Daniels.

It cost $108 million to make and scored the second biggest October domestic debut in history with its takings, trailing only to fellow space flick Gravity.

The film’s creators admitted last month (Sept15) that they were scared by the 2013 movie, which starred Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.

“I remember thinking oh, f**k. Like, is this gonna kill us?” The Martian screenwriter Drew Goddard recalled to MTV News. “I went and saw Gravity and I loved it and it’s totally different, so I felt good. I felt like maybe this will tell the studio, hey, maybe space is OK!”

The Martian knocked last week’s top film Hotel Transylvania 2 into second place with an estimated $33 million.

Meanwhile Emily Blunt’s drug war thriller Sicario shot up to third place with $12.1 million.

The British actress stars alongside Josh Brolin and Benicio Del Toro but she recently admitted how glad she was that director Denis Villeneuve had envisioned such a strong female character for her which wasn’t overshadowed by the men.

“I think he wanted a mix of strength and fragility at the same time,” she told Empire magazine. “The female cops and FBI agents surprised me. I was very taken aback by how normal and slight some of them were. They were tough but kind of not tough. Kind of lonely, kind of shy… I asked them how their work affects their marriage, their children, their sleep, what frightens them, I wanted to know everything.”