‘The Martian’ pulls in a commanding $18 million at the box office Friday

Director Ridley Scott’s “The Martian” is landing with audiences, having taken in an estimated $18 million at the North American box office on Friday.

The 20th Century Fox film is well on its way to an opening weekend that meets earlier projections of a debut between $45 million and $55 million.

The film, which cost $108 million to make and is playing in 3,831 theaters, follows astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon). After a mission to Mars, Watney is assumed to be dead, but he has survived and finds himself stranded alone on the hostile planet.

The film also stars Jessica Chastain, Kristen Wiig, Kate Mara, Michael Peña, Jeff Daniels, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Donald Glover.

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Critics and audiences appear to be in agreement on the film. Early polling from market research firm CinemaScore has filmgoers grading the film an A. Critics have largely been positive as well, as “The Martian” has scored a 94% “fresh” rating from film review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes.

The Times’ Kenneth Turnan was effusive, describing the film as “tip-top science fiction entertainment” and praising its hopeful tone.

“Though dystopian science fiction has dominated the contemporary field for years, ‘The Martian’ is decidedly optimistic, with a self-reliant Mr. Can Do kind of hero whose command of science comes in handy when things get rough,” Turan wrote in his review.

Opening in limited release this week was the Robert Zemeckis-directed “The Walk.” On Friday, the film took in $390,000 in a limited run exclusive to Imax and other large-format theaters.

The Sony TriStar film, which cost $35 million to make, follows French high-wire artist Philippe Petit (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) as he walks between the World Trade Center towers. Sony released the film in 448 theaters on Wednesday before rolling it out in general release next Friday, when it will go up against Warner Bros.’ “Pan.”

The studio expects the film to make about $1.7 million over its five-day limited opening. Early tracking suggests next weekend it could add up to $16 million when it goes into wide release.

The Times’ Turan was mixed on “The Walk.” “Only in the film’s final section, when it uses the magic of computer-generated imagery to astonishingly re-create Petit’s feat, making you feel as if you are on the wire with him, does ‘The Walk’ begin to soar,” he wrote.

Lionsgate film “Sicario” launched wide this week in more than 2,600 locations, up from 59 last week. The action film set amid the war on drugs stars Emily Blunt, Benicio Del Toro and Josh Brolin, and brought in $4.28 million on Friday. “Sicario” launched two weeks ago in just six theaters and had grossed more than $3 million heading into this weekend.

“Sicario” is trending positively with critics and audiences. The film has an A-minus grade on CinemaScore, and the Times’ Mark Olsen wrote that the “film is both a bracing action picture and a startling examination of a world in which right or wrong have become essentially irrelevant.”

Last week’s box-office leader was Sony’s Columbia Pictures’ animated comedy “Hotel Transylvania 2,” which took in $47.5 million in the U.S. and Canada over the weekend to become the biggest September movie opening of all time. On Friday, the film added another estimated $7.5 million to its total and is expected to finish in the No. 2 slot behind “The Martian.”

Staff writer Saba Hamedy contributed to this report.