And for once, it seems as if Hollywood’s broken system actually works. Whether the For Your Consideration campaigns are worth the expenditure is debatable, but with a mainstream, widely applauded hit like The Martian, all of that extra hype and buzz does generally translate to more money. My point here is not to handicap its awards potential, but to recognize that the film’s combination of good word-of-mouth and early success could kick off a virtuous Oscar circle: The Martian opened big, which makes it a serious Oscar contender, which makes everyone go see it, which makes it an even more serious Oscar contender. The Academy loves a winner and would love an excuse to throw a mainstream studio film with a legitimate chance of winning in the mix, as opposed to another indie film that a tiny fraction of the American audience has been able to see in theaters. And consider the two faces of the film: Despite being fixtures in the starry firmament, Damon has not won an acting Oscar 2 and Scott has never won Best Director despite three nominations. And another factor must be considered: Do we have a Best Picture nominee here? After all, Gravity opened big with similarly great reviews and it earned a Best Picture nod and seven actual Oscars. With all of its acclaim and zeitgeist-tapping luck, The Martian also looks to have some long legs. Sure, NASA discovering water on Mars gave The Martian the kind of accidental publicity you can’t buy, but Fox obviously couldn’t count on that kind of extraterrestrial gift and it spent enough on the kind of publicity that costs actual money. Now, primo Ridley Scott doesn’t come cheap, and with a budget of $108 million, The Martian definitely needed to open that strong. Either way, that’s the second-best opening weekend for both Ridley and Damon, and The Martian pulled in a hefty $100 million worldwide. That total comes so close to the October opening record held by Alfonso Cuarón’s also-dazzling Gravity ($55.8 million) that there’s a chance that when Sunday estimates are revised on Monday afternoon, The Martian will walk away with the record. That’s right, sci-fi epic The Martian easily captured the first-place flag with $55 million. This weekend, Sir Ridley brought the goods with a big assist from Matt Damon’s lovable face. No one doubts Ridley Scott is a generation-defining director, an epic visionary with a painter’s eye for pyrotechnics. And no movie was more relevant this weekend than our first winner … Winner: America’s Favorite Martian It was almost like movies were relevant again. But this weekend we gave Hollywood our money and didn’t feel ripped off. Then, every once in a blood-red supermoon, the studios take a chance and fall flat on their faces, so it’s no wonder why they scurry back to the safety of their native franchise and reboot terrain. And better yet: They made money! We always complain about cynical studios feeding us junk food, but we eat it and they profit. For once, the studios gave us an embarrassment of riches with three new releases that were critically acclaimed, ambitious films not derived from a pre-branded, cross-platform multiverse five-year plan. No, this weekend, all that money felt right - morally, artistically, existentially. And that’s not just because some records may have been broken or because nearly everything from the new releases to the holdovers put up big numbers, 1 or even because year-to-date receipts are running a healthy 6.3 percent above last year and we haven’t even gotten anywhere close to Star Wars time yet. To paraphrase Colonel Kilgore, don’t you just love the smell of money in the morning? Yep, it smelled like victory at the North American box office this weekend. OK, Hollywood: Strip off your shirt, stick out your chest, and cue the Wagner.
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