{"id":373008,"date":"2026-03-30T13:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373008\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T13:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T13:29:09","slug":"project-hail-mary-flies-to-54-5-million-second-weekend-horror-reaches-a-saturation-point","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/373008\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Project Hail Mary’ flies to $54.5 million second weekend, horror reaches a saturation point"},"content":{"rendered":"

NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d<\/a> 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\u2019s biggest hit thus far.<\/p>\n

The Phil Lord and Chris Miller sci-fi adventure, starring Ryan Gosling, dipped only 32% after notching the best non-franchise opening weekend<\/a> since 2023\u2019s \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d Amazon MGM\u2019s yet, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d has grossed $300.8 million worldwide in two weeks.<\/p>\n

\u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d which cost nearly $200 million to produce, didn\u2019t face any significant new competition and kept premium format screens largely to itself. Potentially the weekend\u2019s most watched movie, the KPop documentary \u201cBTS: The Return,\u201d<\/a> went straight to streaming on Netflix.<\/p>\n

But \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is on an enviable trajectory. Its second weekend hold was even better than that of \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which collected $46.7 million in its follow-up frame.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the weekend\u2019s top new release, \u201cThey Will Kill You,\u201d<\/a> 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\u2019s to become a sacrificial offering.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

That included last week\u2019s \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come\u201d ($16.3 million domestically so far) and a second horror-comedy that also debuted this weekend. IFC\u2019s \u201cForbidden Fruits,\u201d about a coven of witches who work at a Texas mall, debuted with $1.2 million in sales.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, family movies continue to thrive. The Pixar original \u201cHoppers\u201d<\/a> remained in second place with $12.2 million in its fourth weekend. The Walt Disney Co. release has accumulated $297.6 million globally.<\/p>\n

Next weekend, though, it will face stiff competition in Universal Pictures\u2019 \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie.\u201d It\u2019s expected to have the biggest opening of 2026.<\/p>\n

Top 10 movies by domestic box office<\/p>\n

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:<\/p>\n

1. \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d $54.5 million.<\/p>\n

2. \u201cHoppers,\u201d $12.2 million.<\/p>\n

3. \u201cThey Will Kill You,\u201d $5 million.<\/p>\n

4. \u201cDhurandhar The Revenge,\u201d $4.8 million.<\/p>\n

5. \u201cReminders of Him,\u201d $4.7 million.<\/p>\n

6. \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come,\u201d $4 million.<\/p>\n

7. \u201cScream 7,\u201d $2.6 million.<\/p>\n

8. \u201cGOAT,\u201d $2.2 million.<\/p>\n

9. \u201cUndertone,\u201d $1.7 million.<\/p>\n

10. \u201cForbidden Fruits,\u201d $1.2 million.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK \u2014 \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d stayed aloft in its second weekend, holding strongly with $54.5 million, according…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":373009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,60,270],"class_list":{"0":"post-373008","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-ie","10":"tag-ireland","11":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=373008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/373008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/373009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=373008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=373008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=373008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}