'Project Hail Mary' flies to $54.5 million second weekend, horror
reaches a saturation point
[March 30, 2026]
By JAKE COYLE AP
NEW YORK (AP) — “Project Hail Mary” stayed aloft in its second weekend,
holding strongly with $54.5 million, according to studio estimates
Sunday, and adding to the long-term prospects of the year’s biggest hit
thus far.
The Phil Lord and Chris Miller sci-fi adventure, starring Ryan Gosling,
dipped only 32% after notching the best non-franchise opening weekend
since 2023’s “Oppenheimer.” Amazon MGM’s yet, “Project Hail Mary” has
grossed $300.8 million worldwide in two weeks.
“Project Hail Mary,” which cost nearly $200 million to produce, didn’t
face any significant new competition and kept premium format screens
largely to itself. Potentially the weekend's most watched movie, the
KPop documentary “BTS: The Return,” went straight to streaming on
Netflix.
But “Project Hail Mary” is on an enviable trajectory. Its second weekend
hold was even better than that of “Oppenheimer,” which collected $46.7
million in its follow-up frame.
Meanwhile, the weekend’s top new release, “They Will Kill You,” debuted
with a disappointing $5 million for Warner Bros. The gory R-rated horror
film stars Zazie Beetz as a woman who applies to be a maid at an
apartment complex where she’s to become a sacrificial offering.
While the result was far from catastrophic for a movie with a modest $20
million budget, it did suggest that theaters may have become
oversaturated in horror. David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting
firm FranchiseRe, noted that there has been a new horror film released
every weekend for the last 14 weekends.
That included last week’s “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” ($16.3 million
domestically so far) and a second horror-comedy that also debuted this
weekend. IFC’s “Forbidden Fruits,” about a coven of witches who work at
a Texas mall, debuted with $1.2 million in sales.
Despite the glut, Gross is forecasting horror films will account for
about $2.1 billion in North American ticket revenue in 2026, down from
$2.75 million last year. While horror remains popular with audiences and
relatively cheap to produce, the genre may be approaching overkill.
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This image released by Searchlight Pictures shows Samara Weaving in
a scene from "Ready or Not 2: Here I Come." (Pief Weyman/Searchlight
Pictures via AP)
 Meanwhile, family movies continue to
thrive. The Pixar original “Hoppers” remained in second place with
$12.2 million in its fourth weekend. The Walt Disney Co. release has
accumulated $297.6 million globally.
Next weekend, though, it will face stiff competition in Universal
Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” It’s expected to have the
biggest opening of 2026.
Top 10 movies by domestic box office
With final domestic figures being released Monday, this list factors
in the estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and
Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:
1. “Project Hail Mary,” $54.5 million.
2. “Hoppers,” $12.2 million.
3. “They Will Kill You,” $5 million.
4. “Dhurandhar The Revenge,” $4.8 million.
5. “Reminders of Him,” $4.7 million.
6. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” $4 million.
7. “Scream 7,” $2.6 million.
8. “GOAT,” $2.2 million.
9. “Undertone,” $1.7 million.
10. “Forbidden Fruits,” $1.2 million.
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