http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/books/2015/10/book_review_the_martian_movie_gives_the_book_a_dose_of_wonder.html

When Ridley Scott’s exciting and funny film of Andy Weir’s hit novel The Martian comes to theaters this week, it’s going to be wildly popular and make hundreds of millions of dollars. Or let’s be more precise: According to the Congressional Research Service there were 6.2 million scientists and engineers in the United States in 2012, and that workforce is growing at a compound annual rate of 1.5 percent, suggesting that in 2015, that number is about 6.485 million. Each of those scientists and engineers will see the movie twice. The average price of a movie ticket in the United States is $8.61, but that average includes children’s prices and 2-D movies; it’s safe to say that most scientists and engineers will pay a premium to see The Martian in three glorious dimensions. Set that average ticket price at a conservative $12, and that gives us a domestic box office gross of $155,640,000. That’s just an estimate, of course; I didn’t account for the preponderance of scientists and engineers in coastal states where ticket prices tend to be higher. Also, it’s possible that some nonscientists will see this movie.