<\/p>\n
\u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d<\/a> is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn\u2019t seen for a non-franchise film since \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cCreed III\u201d ($58 million in 2023). Not accounting for inflation, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d also scored the second biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind only \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d<\/a> which opened to $82.4 million in 2023.<\/p>\n It\u2019s now one of only three non-franchise movies in the past decade to open over $70 million (the third is Jordan Peele\u2019s \u201cUs\u201d<\/a> ). In the realm of modern space operas, it exceeded the debuts of \u201cThe Martian,\u201d also an Andy Weir adaptation that opened around $54.3 million in 2015, \u201cGravity\u201d ($55.6 million in 2013) and \u201cInterstellar\u201d ($47.5 million in 2014).<\/p>\n Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller<\/a>, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d cost about double the \u201cOppenheimer\u201d 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 \u201cdefinitely recommend\u201d the film to friends. The gender breakdown skewed slightly more male (57%), and 55% of the audience were under 35.<\/p>\n 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 \u201cevent\u201d movies like \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d premium large format screens were in demand, making up 56% of the weekend\u2019s gross. IMAX screens alone accounted for 24% of the total. <\/p>\n \u201cWe believe deeply in the Hail Mary, and it\u2019s clear audiences do as well,\u201d said Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 head of domestic distribution, in a statement. \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<\/p>\n Hollywood\u2019s other big new opener, \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come,\u201d<\/a> a Searchlight release, came in a distant fourth with $9.1 million, behind Disney and Pixar’s \u201cHoppers\u201d<\/a> ($18 million) and the Bollywood sequel \u201cDhurandhar: The Revenge,\u201d which made $9.6 million from Friday through Sunday. Universal\u2019s Colleen Hoover adaptation \u201cReminders of Him\u201d<\/a> rounded out the top five in its second weekend with $8 million.<\/p>\n Viva Pictures also released an animated adaptation of the popular children\u2019s book \u201cThe Pout-Pout Fish\u201d in 1,854 theaters and is expected to place in the top 10. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.<\/p>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.news4jax.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn\u2019t seen for a non-franchise film since \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2340999,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[400564,306437,21741,315770,453757,350449,313198,30188],"class_list":["post-2340997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-christopher-miller","tag-colleen-hoover","tag-entertainment","tag-jordan-peele","tag-kevin-wilson","tag-phil-lord","tag-ryan-gosling","tag-u-s-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/\u2018Project-Hail-Mary-blasts-off-with-805-million-a-best.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2340997"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340997\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2341000,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2340997\/revisions\/2341000"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2340999"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2340997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2340997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2340997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}