walkstill_SonyPicturesEnt
The Robert Zemeckis-directed 3-D movie "The Walk" took in less than $2 million during its opening weekend. Sony Pictures Entertainment

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and writer-director Robert Zemeckis had a serious stumble. “The Walk,” a 3-D dramatization of the real-life exploits of tightrope walker Philippe Petit, brought in just $1.9 million over the course of a three-day weekend, despite a strong critical reception and the promise of a visceral theater experience. A number of theatergoers reported experiencing vertigo during the film's climactic sequence, and a number of people attending early screenings vomited.

That total deserves to be regarded with a grain of salt -- it opened on just a few hundred 3-D Imax screens across the country, far fewer than the more than 3,800 theaters that were showing “The Martian” -- but it will need to rebound strongly if it hopes to recoup its $35 million production budget. The film opens more widely next weekend.

Meanwhile, the stars aligned for Matt Damon and 20th Century Fox. “The Martian,” their highly anticipated film about an astronaut who is accidentally marooned on Mars, raked in an estimated $55 million over the weekend, less than a million dollars shy of the all-time record for a film opening in October, set by "Gravity."

The film also hauled in an estimated $45.2 million in some 49 international markets, though those markets did not include prime box office territories like Japan, German or China, the world’s second-largest market for movies. A number of those territories will not see the film’s release until February of next year, according to a report in Box Office Mojo.

“Hotel Transylvania 2,” which claimed the top spot on the box office last week, scared up another $33 million, bringing its total box office receipts to $90.5 million through just two weeks. It is on pace to surpass its predecessor, “Hotel Transylvania,” which managed to bring in more than $148 million when it was released in 2012. The 3-D animated film about a hotel run by Dracula features Adam Sandler voicing the leading role.

The gritty "Sicario," a police drama set in Mexico that stars Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, had the third-best showing of the weekend, taking in $12 million.