The Martian dominated the box office this weekend, also exerting its dominance over Interstellar — that other epic space movie you may have heard of — also featuring Jessica Chastain and a stranded-in-space Matt Damon.According to estimates relayed by the The Hollywood Reporter , Ridley Scott’s acclaimed The Martian brought in a whopping $55 million, handily surpassing Interstellar‘s $47 million opening last fall, and coming in just short of the $55.8 million Gravity made in 2013.
If three films make a trend, then The Martian officially solidified the “fall space epic” as a new standard, and a pretty lucrative one, at that. Gravity set the October box-office record in 2013. Interstellar, though it didn’t make quite as much on its opening weekend, still managed to clear $675 million globally, and was released in November.
The Martian also grabbed $45.2 million across 49 other markets worldwide, besting its rivals in some of them, generating a total $102 million worldwide, despite Matt Damon’s recent PR missteps.
Analysts were also impressed by the The Martian‘s sales because, unlike Gravity and Interstellar, Scott’s film generated equal sales without a presence on IMAX screens, which garnered additional revenue for both films.