‘The Martian’ Defies ‘Gravity,’ Climbs Over ‘Everest,’ And Outpaces ‘The Walk’

The Martian is all set to defy box office records held by some of the biggest grossers like Gravity, Everest or The Walk. The Ridley Scott film is within the atmosphere of possibly breaking the $55.8M October opening record set by Warner Bros 'Gravity' exactly two years ago,' said Deadline.

Currently, The Martian is set to make $55M for the weekend, however, that A CinemasScore, which bests Gravity's A-, could fuel Saturday's spike higher than where everyone sees it, which is at +25% over Friday, Deadline stated further.

The sci-fi thriller debuted with a superb $18 million on Friday night bigger than the $17.4m earned by Warner Bros/ Time Warner Inc.'s Gravity on its first weekend two years ago. The movie is also the fifth-biggest October Friday of all time. 'The Martians' does not get any of the IMAX screens this weekend as they are exclusively reserved for 'The Walk.'

The movie has received rave reviews from the critics and viewers alike and has been lauded for its realism of a colossal dust storm that sweeps over the Mars and Earth's team abandons its mission and evacuates. In the course of storm, the film's main character, Mark Watney (played by Matt Damon), is dragged away from the group leaving him stranded. Although the scene has been shot superbly, nevertheless, it has received its share of criticism from NASA as well.

NASA's planetary science directors stated that dust storm routinely sweep across the planet Mars. However, since the atmospheric pressure of Mars is about only 1% that of the Earth's, it means the air on Mars is simply too thin for the wind carry much force or do any damage. A dust storm of 100 mph wind would feel like someone was throwing a bag of feathers.