{"id":490389,"date":"2026-03-23T05:03:16","date_gmt":"2026-03-23T05:03:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/490389\/"},"modified":"2026-03-23T05:03:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-23T05:03:16","slug":"ryan-goslings-sci-fi-epic-project-hail-mary-scores-biggest-box-office-opening-of-the-year-with-80-5m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/490389\/","title":{"rendered":"Ryan Gosling\u2019s sci-fi epic Project Hail Mary scores biggest box office opening of the year with $80.5m"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ryan Gosling\u2019s new sci-fi film Project Hail Mary<\/a> has collected $80.5 million on its box office launch, making it the largest debut of the year so far.<\/p>\n

The release marks a much-needed win for Amazon MGM after a series of flops,<\/a> shattering its previous opening weekend record set by 2023\u2019s Creed III, which made $58 million.<\/p>\n

Project Hail Mary comes out in front of Scream 7, which is the second-largest opening of the year, taking $63 million in February.<\/p>\n

The film, which follows Gosling as a schoolteacher tasked with travelling into space to save the world, was projected to earn $65 million at the domestic box office, but its opening weekend was strengthened by positive reviews and adverts shown at the Oscars last week.<\/p>\n

Project Hail Mary also scored a strong $60.4 million at the international box office for a global start of $140.9 million.<\/p>\n

\"RyanRyan Gosling\u2019s \u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019 has become Amazon MGM\u2019s best theatrical opening (MGM)<\/p>\n

Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM\u2019s distribution chief, said in a statement that audiences believe in the film.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we\u2019re seeing in theaters \u2014 the energy, the exit scores, the word of mouth \u2014 is everything we believed this film would deliver,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Gosling movie cost $200 million to make, plus several million to market, according to Variety, so there is still some way to go until Amazon can recoup its cost.<\/p>\n

\"\u2018Project\u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019 is adapted from Andy Weir\u2019s best-selling novel of the same name (MGM)<\/p>\n

The debut comes after Jeff Bezos\u2019s Amazon MGM has experienced several box office flops, most notably the January release of Melania, which followed the First Lady in the 20 days leading up to Trump\u2019s second inauguration, across global theaters.<\/p>\n

The film, which was critically panned across the board and branded a piece of propaganda by some, generated $16 million at the box office, which fell short in comparison to its hefty $40 million price tag<\/a>. <\/p>\n

The studio\u2019s thriller Crime 101 starring Chris Hemsworth also didn\u2019t meet box office targets, grossing just $65 million against a $90 million budget after its release in Febuary<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Project Hail Mary has been better received among critics, with The Independent\u2019s film critic Clarisee Loughrey awarding the film four stars<\/a>, remarking that it is \u201can alchemically perfected blend of past sci-fi greats, with a good dose of Spielberg and Kubrick \u2013 familiar without feeling exhausted.\u201d<\/p>\n

Loughrey also praised the film\u2019s \u201ctop-shelf nostalgia\u201d and the fact is was \u201cimmaculate to look at.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cProject Hail Mary was clearly made to catapult a certain segment of the audience back to their childhoods \u2013 it carries the same fetishisation of late Sixties and Seventies sound and production design as recent fare in the Alien franchise,\u201d she writes.<\/p>\n

Project Hail Mary is adapted from Andy Weir\u2019s best-selling novel of the same name. His 2011 book, The Martian, was made into a 2015 sci-film directed by Ridley Scott.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Your support helps us to tell the story From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":490390,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[96,2839,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-490389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-movies","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=490389"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/490389\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/490390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=490389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=490389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=490389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}