NORTH AMERICA: Weekend Actuals: 'The Martian' and 'Hotel Transylvania 2' Both Zoom Past the $100M Mark After Respective $37.0M and $20.4M Takes; 'Pan' Soft with $15.3M Debut; 'The Walk' Disappoints with $3.7M

By Daniel Garris

Fox's The Martian took in $37.01 million this weekend to lead the box office for a second consecutive frame. The critically acclaimed Ridley Scott directed 3D sci-fi film starring Matt Damon held up nicely this weekend, as it was down just 32 percent from last weekend. In comparison, 2013's Gravity declined 23 percent in its second weekend to gross $43.19 million, while last year's Interstellar fell 40 percent to gross $28.31 million. The Martian surpassed the $100 million mark this weekend and has grossed an excellent $108.72 million in ten days. The film is currently running 12 percent ahead of the $96.93 million Interstellar had grossed after ten days of wide release and 11 percent behind the $122.32 million ten-day take of Gravity. Thanks in part to strong word of mouth and strong critical reviews The Martian is likely to continue to hold up well throughout the month of October.

Sony's Hotel Transylvania 2 held steady in second place this weekend with $20.42 million. The Adam Sandler led 3D computer animated film from Sony Pictures Animation continued to hold up well, as it declined 38.5 percent from last weekend. Like The Martian, Hotel Transylvania 2 also surpassed the $100 million domestic mark this weekend. With a strong 17-day take of $116.94 million, Hotel Transylvania 2 is running an impressive 14.5 percent ahead of the $102.13 million 17-day gross of 2012's Hotel Transylvania (which fell 36 percent in its third weekend to gross $17.24 million). Hotel Transylvania 2 will face added competition for family audiences next weekend when fellow Sony release Goosebumps enters the marketplace.

Pan was off to a soft third place start with $15.32 million. Warner's pricey 3D adventure fantasy starring Hugh Jackman opened below its already held in check expectations and performed poorly with its expensive price tag in mind. Potential for the Peter Pan origin story was always modest to begin with and the film's delay from the summer to the fall and poor critical reviews didn't help matters either. Pan opened a disappointing 44 percent below the $27.32 million start of 2011's Real Steel, which was also released over Columbus Day weekend.

Pan started out with $5.18 million on Friday (which included an estimated $650,000 from Thursday evening shows), increased 15.5 percent on Saturday to gross $5.99 million and declined 31 percent on Sunday to gross $4.14 million. That placed the film's opening weekend to Friday ratio at 2.95 to 1. The audience breakdown for Pan skewed towards female moviegoers (55 percent) and slightly towards moviegoers over the age of 25 (52 percent). Pan received a solid B+ rating on CinemaScore. While that suggests that the film is going over better with audiences than it has with critics, it should also be noted that the film's current audience score on Flixster stands at a lackluster 54 percent. Pan could take a direct hit next weekend from the mentioned arrival of Goosebumps this coming Friday.

Fellow Warner Bros. release The Intern followed in fourth place with $8.68 million. The Nancy Meyers directed comedy starring Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway held up especially well this weekend, as it was down a slim 26 percent. Strong word of mouth, the film skewing heavily towards older moviegoers and the relative lack of comedies in the current marketplace are all helping boost holding power for the film. The Intern has grossed $49.59 million in 17 days, which places the film 7 percent ahead of the $46.53 million 17-day take of 2013's Last Vegas.

Lionsgate's Sicario rounded out the weekend's top five with $7.58 million. The critically acclaimed crime thriller starring Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin was down 38 percent from last weekend. While that represented a solid weekend hold, it also suggests that the film isn't going over quite as well with audiences as it has with critics. Sicario has grossed a solid $26.94 million through 24 days of release (with the film's first two weeks having been in platform release).

Meanwhile, Sony's The Walk continued to under-perform in a big way with a seventh place take of just $3.72 million in its first weekend of wide release. The critically acclaimed 3D Robert Zemeckis directed film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt only managed a per-location average of $1,482 for the frame and that was with the aid of higher priced IMAX admissions. The twelve-day total for The Walk stands at $6.43 million. Despite strong critical reviews, The Walk hasn't been able to catch on with moviegoers due in part to very tough competition and not having the most mainstream friendly concept to begin with. The Walk received an excellent A+ rating on CinemaScore, but strong word of mouth likely won't help much in this case given the film's poor performance thus far.

On the other end of the box office spectrum, Universal's Steve Jobs was off to a terrific start in platform release with $521,522 from 4 locations in New York and Los Angeles. That gave the Danny Boyle directed drama starring Michael Fassbender a massive per-location average of $130,381 for the frame, which easily represented the strongest platform per-location average of 2015 thus far. Strong critical reviews and the legacy of Steve Jobs have helped to build up anticipation for the film and the film's strong platform launch is likely to build further momentum for the film going forward. Steve Jobs will be playing in an estimated 60 locations next weekend and will expand into wide release on October 23rd.