Image copyright 20th Century Fox/AP Image caption Almost half of The Martian's takings came from 3D screenings

Space thriller The Martian, in which Matt Damon plays an astronaut stranded on Mars, has landed at the top of the North American box office chart.

The movie, directed by Ridley Scott, took $55m (£36m) over the weekend, according to studio estimates.

That puts it on a par with the Oscar-winning Gravity, which took $55.8m two years ago and holds the record for the biggest October opening on record.

The Martian is based on author Andy Weir's book of the same name.

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Nasa and the European Space Agency acted as consultants in an attempt to make the film as scientifically accurate as possible. 3D screenings accounted for 46% of its weekend receipts.

Meanwhile, last week's top film Hotel Transylvania 2 slipped to second place with takings of $33m (£22m) and drug war thriller Sicario was in third with $12.1m (£8m).