‘Project Hail Mary’ Launches to Big Box Office

Preview:

‘Project Hail Mary’ is a big hit at the box office already.
Ryan Gosling stars in the movie.
Elsewhere, Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’ stayed strong but ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ only found modest results.

‘Project Hail Mary’ chronicles a man in spaceship on a mission to save humanity from a star-snacking organism. And the movie itself, which stars Ryan Gosling, has just saved Amazon MGM’s box office hopes.

The new film, adapted from the novel by ‘The Martian’s Andy Weir by writer Drew Goddard and directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, enjoyed a massive domestic opening of $80.5 million, the biggest by far for the studio.

Project Hail Mary

"Believe in the Hail Mary."

PG-13Adventure Science Fiction

Audience

Review

Release Mar 20, 2026Runtime 2h 36mBudget $200M

Even with a hefty $200 million budget to make up (not including a big ad campaign), the movie’s worldwide start of 140.9 million –– the biggest in Amazon MGM’s history and the strongest launch for a movie so far this year –– will go some way to helping that.

What else happened at the box office this weekend?

Pixar’s ‘Hoppers,’ which has proved to be a welcome success for the animation company, slid to second place after a couple of weeks. It added $18 million for $120.4 million domestically.

Third place went to the Indian action epic ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge,’ which earned $9.5 million from just 987 locations.

Searchlight’s ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ had to make do with $9 million domestically and $11.9 million globally, but has a relatively smaller budget of around $20 million.

Finally, in fifth place we find romantic drama ‘Reminders of Him’, which made $8 million.

What’s on the horizon?

(L to R) Luigi, Yoshi, Mario and Toad in Nintendo and Illumination’s 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie', directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.

‘Project Hail Mary’ should have a clear run to keep earning next week, though Universal’s ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ is looming, and if it follows the pattern of the original, will likely launch in first place when it arrives on April 1.