The film adaptation of the bestselling book by Andy Weir earned $55 million at the box office on its opening weekend, according to estimates from Rentrak.
Ridley Scott directs the film, which stars Matt Damon as an American astronaut who is left for dead and becomes stranded on Mars.
Andy Weir self-published the book back in 2011 and it was snapped up by Crown Publishing Book Group after its massive success. In recent a Reddit AMA, Weir revealed his approach to writing:
I spent about half my time researching. I’m not worried about my work coming under the eye of experts. It’s a work of fiction, and it’s going to have inaccuracies. That’s just how it is. But getting a thumbs up from those experts and hearing them say “It’s more accurate than anything else in the field” is a good feeling.