Fox's 'The Martian' Wins the Weekend Box Office Race

Matt Damon stars in Fox's "The Martian" as a marooned astronaut on Mars. The film topped the weekend box office with $55 million (Photo by 20th Century Fox Film Corporation).

LOS ANGELES - "The Martian," the sci-fi Ridley Scott film starring Matt Damon topped the weekend box office with $55 million, well ahead of Sony's "Hotel Transylvania 2" which hauled in $33 million for a two-week total of $90.54 million.

"The Martian" had been expected to make $45 million.

The Ridley Scott film as the subject of much praise by critics who hailed the director's work as among his best while also citing Damon's performance as an astronautt marooned on the vast red planet. The film's box office opening marked the second best in Scott's career, just behind the $58 million put up by "Hannibal" in 2001. It was Damon's second best opening as well, behind “The Bourne Ultimatum’s” $69.3 million debut in 2007.

Coming in third this weekend was Lionsgate's "Sicario" which garnered $12.07 million for a three-week total of $15.08 million. In fourth place was "The Intern" which brought in $11.62 million for a two-week total of $36.52 million.

The rest stacked up this way:

5. "Maze Runner: Scorch Trials" (Fox) $7.65 million for a three-week total of $63.24 million

6. "Black Mass" (Warner Bros.) $5.90 million for a three-week total of $52.52 million.

7. "Everest (2015)" Universal $5.51 million for a three-week total of $33.18 million

8. "The Visit" (Universal) $3.95 million for a four-week total of $57.69 million

9. "War Room" (Tristar) $2.80 million for a six-week total of $60.54 million

10. "The Perfect Guy" (Sony) $2.40 million for a four-week total of $52.61 million