Before its release, there were hopes "The Martian" could go the distance at the box office. Two years earlier, "Gravity," another sci-fi movie aimed at grownups, managed to excel financially and beat out all expectations. "The Martian" didn't need to match that film's box office run right down to the cent, but "Gravity" did prove there was a market for space-bound dramas marketed towards adults. Impressively, "The Martian" managed to reach the heights of all pre-release expectations of its theatrical box office run, which kicked off with an impressive $54.3 million North American bow.
From there, "The Martian" managed to ride a wave of positive buzz, not to mention a lack of competition from any other major October 2015 theatrical releases, to stick around for weeks at the North American box office. In this territory alone, "The Martian" managed to take home a whopping $228.4 million. The news got even better internationally, where the feature managed to score another $425 million, giving "The Martian" a staggering $653.5 million worldwide haul. A lot was going on here to inform why "The Martian" did so extraordinary at the box office, but the combination of a simple but appealing premise with a crowd-pleaser aesthetic cannot be underestimated. While before its release the hope was "The Martian" would perform anywhere near as good as "Gravity," it ended up being the kind of big hit other films want to mimic in their theatrical run.
