Project Hail Mary is shooting for the stars as it broke three major box office records during its opening weekend.
Ryan Gosling stars as Ryland Grace in an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel from 2021 of the same name. Project Hail Mary follows science teacher Grace, who wakes up on a spaceship with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Missing pieces slowly return to his memory, and he soon realizes he must solve the riddle to stop an oncoming ice age and save humanity and the sun from dying.
Deadline reports that Project Hail Mary has broken three box office records, including the AmazonMGM Studios record, Phil Lord and Chris Miller’s record, and the record for a non-franchise March opening. The movie failed to topple Oppenheimer’s record for a non-franchise/non-sequel movie, which is at $82.4 million, but its impressive opening of $80.6 million is still a major achievement.
Lord and Miller, who directed the sci-fi epic, previously had their best opening weekend with the animated comedy The Lego Movie ($69 million), and it’s Gosling’s second-best opening weekend after Barbie, which grossed $162 million. Oppenheimer’s Sunday reached $23.1 million, and at the time of writing, Project Hail Mary is expected to hit $20.3 million.
Project Hail Mary has grossed $140.9 million at the global box office, making it one of the biggest global openings for a franchise film so far. The estimate for the international weekend box office is around $60.4 million, which is on par with Interstellar and Dune, according to Deadline. The sci-fi opened at number 1 in over 60 markets, including the UK, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Brazil, Australia, and Japan.
Ryan Gosling as Ryland smiling toward Rocky with his helmet off in the tunnel in Project Hail Mary
It has been reported that Project Hail Mary has a staggering production budget of $248 million, meaning that in order to break even, the movie will need to make 2.5x its budget, including marketing costs, which will be around the $500 million to $600 million mark. Christopher Nolan’s historical drama Oppenheimer produced similar numbers during its opening weekend and managed to gross $975.8 million worldwide at the box office.
The movie has been received extremely well by those who have seen it, as it currently has a 95% Rotten Tomatoes rating and an A from Cinemascore. Some critics have stated Project Hail Mary is a “heartwarming hit”, “thrilling masterpiece”, and “a brilliantly kaleidoscopic experience.” People praise the stunning visuals seen throughout the movie, and many are choosing to view it in IMAX to achieve the full experience, with 54% of North American sales being for IMAX and PLFs.
Project Hail Mary is available to watch in theaters now.
Release Date
March 20, 2026
Runtime
156 Minutes
Director
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
Writers
Drew Goddard, Andy Weir
Producers
Ryan Gosling, Amy Pascal, Andy Weir, Aditya Sood, Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Rachel O’Connor