Box Office: ‘Project Hail Mary’ blasts off with $80.5 million, a best
for Amazon MGM, and the year
[March 23, 2026]
By LINDSEY BAHR
“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers
the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.”
The science fiction epic starring Ryan Gosling earned around $80.5
million in ticket sales in its first weekend playing in North America,
according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence
estimates that translates into about 5 million ticket buyers.
The PG-13 rated film opened on 4,007 screens and easily topped the
domestic box office charts, surpassing expectations to become the
biggest of the year and delivering a record opening for studio Amazon
MGM, whose previous best was “Creed III” ($58 million in 2023). Not
accounting for inflation, “Project Hail Mary” also scored the second
biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind only “Oppenheimer,”
which opened to $82.4 million in 2023.
It’s now one of only three non-franchise movies in the past decade to
open over $70 million (the third is Jordan Peele’s “Us” ). In the realm
of modern space operas, it exceeded the debuts of “The Martian,” also an
Andy Weir adaptation that opened around $54.3 million in 2015, “Gravity”
($55.6 million in 2013) and “Interstellar” ($47.5 million in 2014).
Internationally, “Project Hail Mary” earned $60.4 million from 82
markets, bringing its global total to $140.9 million.
“We all know theatrical is not an easy business. It's tougher today I
think than it's ever been,” Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of
domestic distribution, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “And sci-fi
movies, to break out to a broad audience, is not the easiest thing to
do.”
And yet the results of the weekend put them in “rarefied air” alongside
“Oppenheimer,” which Wilson said is “certainly something special.” The
film is playing broadly across the country with markets like Salt Lake
City, Denver and Portland overindexing which, Wilson said, suggests that
they're getting some family audiences too.
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, “Project Hail Mary” cost
about double the “Oppenheimer” production budget, with a price tag in
the $200 million range. But it also carries strong reviews and audience
scores and could be destined for a long run. According to PostTrak exit
polls, where it scored five out of five stars, 83% of audiences said
they would “definitely recommend” the film to friends. The gender
breakdown skewed slightly more male (57%), and 55% of the audience were
under 35.
In an era where the draw of movie stars is always in question, Wilson
said, “It leaves no doubt that Ryan Gosling is a singular star that has
the massive global appeal and charisma to anchor a story like this."
The film is centered around Gosling's character who wakes up alone and
with little memory on a spaceship, where his apparent mission is to try
to save the sun from dying. As has become the norm for “event” movies
like “Project Hail Mary,” premium large format screens were in demand,
making up 56% of the weekend’s gross. IMAX screens alone accounted for
$$27.6 million of the global total.
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Ryan Gosling attends the premiere of "Project Hail Mary" at Lincoln
Center Plaza on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in New York. (Photo by
Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
 “The next interesting piece will be
how long can this movie play, which I think could be something
special,” Wilson said.
“Project Hail Mary” will have a second weekend essentially free of
big competition until it loses its IMAX screens to “The Super Mario
Galaxy Movie” on April 1.
Hollywood’s other big new opener, “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” a
Searchlight release, came in a distant fourth with $9.1 million,
behind Disney and Pixar's “Hoppers” ($18 million) and the Bollywood
sequel “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” which made $9.6 million from
Friday through Sunday according to the U.S. distributor; Comscore is
projecting a slightly higher $10 million figure. Universal’s Colleen
Hoover adaptation “Reminders of Him” rounded out the top five in its
second weekend with $8 million.
Viva Pictures also released an animated adaptation of the popular
children’s book “The Pout-Pout Fish” in 1,854 theaters, which landed
in ninth place with $1.5 million.
The year-to-date box office is now up around 21%, according to
Comscore.
“The performance of ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a momentum builder like
no other and it’s reinvigorating the movie marketplace,” said Paul
Dergarabedian, Comscore's head of marketplace trends. “This is a
momentum business, and this is exactly what the industry needed
right now.”
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,” $80.5 million.
2. “Hoppers,” $18 million.
3. “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” $10 million.
4. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” $9.1 million.
5. “Reminders of Him,” $8 million.
6. “Scream 7,” $4.3 million.
7. “Goat,” $3.7 million.
8. “Undertone,” $3 million.
9. “The Pout-Pout Fish,” $1.5 million.
10. “MET Opera: Tristan und Isolde,” $722,499.
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