12. The Martian Hits Cinemas On The Eve Of Mars Water Discovery
The Movie: Ridley Scott's latest sci-fi sees astronaut Mark Watney (Matt Damon) stranded on Mars after an expedition goes horribly wrong, as he tries to survive long enough for his crew-mates to mount a rescue mission. The Release: Just days before The Martian hit cinemas, NASA announced that they had found evidence of running water on Mars, which is probably the most brilliantly serendipitous cross-promotion for the movie you could imagine. It's widely speculated that the film's over-performance at the box office (having grossed more than $450 million, making it Scott's highest-grossing film to date) may have been caused by this announcement. Hell, some even speculated that Fox and NASA conspired to coincide the announcement with the movie's release, though naturally, NASA refuted this. Amusingly, though, Scott claimed that he knew of the water discovery months before the rest of the world when consulting with NASA, who showed him pictures indicating such, but by then it was too late to add it into the movie.
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