“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.”
Ryan Gosling attends the premiere of “Project Hail Mary” at Lincoln Center Plaza on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in New York. 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 and delivering a record opening for studio Amazon MGM, whose previous best was “Creed III” . Not accounting for inflation, “Project Hail Mary” also scored the second biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind onlyIt’s now one of only three non-franchise movies in the past decade to open over $70 million . 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” and “Interstellar” . 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., “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 , and 55% of the audience were under 35. 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. “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. 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 adaptationViva 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 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.”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:9. “The Pout-Pout Fish,” $1.5 million.Asking Eric: Do I just have to accept that my 30-year-old son is an adult?A packed Nvidia conference shows what downtown San Jose is missing the rest of the yearMeta targeted older workers in layoffs, lawsuit by former senior director for company claimsDear Abby: I keep getting falsely accused, and I really resent these peopleWhat’s the state of the California governor’s race? New poll shows voters are ‘disengaged and largely unenthusiastic’ What's the state of the California governor's race? New poll shows voters are 'disengaged and largely unenthusiastic'
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