<\/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 to become the biggest of the year 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 Internationally, \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d earned $60.4 million from 82 markets, bringing its global total to $140.9 million. <\/p>\n \u201cWe all know theatrical is not an easy business. It’s tougher today I think than it’s ever been,\u201d Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios\u2019 head of domestic distribution, told The Associated Press on Sunday. \u201cAnd sci-fi movies, to break out to a broad audience, is not the easiest thing to do.\u201d<\/p>\n And yet the results of the weekend put them in \u201crarefied air\u201d alongside \u201cOppenheimer,\u201d which Wilson said is \u201ccertainly something special.\u201d The film is playing broadly across the country with markets like Salt Lake City, Denver and Portland overindexing which, Wilson said, suggests that they’re getting some family audiences too. <\/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 In an era where the draw of movie stars is always in question, Wilson said, \u201cIt leaves no doubt that Ryan Gosling is a singular star that has the massive global appeal and charisma to anchor a story like this.”<\/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 $$27.6 million of the global total. <\/p>\n \u201cThe next interesting piece will be how long can this movie play, which I think could be something special,\u201d Wilson said. <\/p>\n \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d will have a second weekend essentially free of big competition until it loses its IMAX screens to \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d on April 1. <\/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 according to the U.S. distributor; Comscore is projecting a slightly higher $10 million figure. 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, which landed in ninth place with $1.5 million. <\/p>\n The year-to-date box office is now up around 21%, according to Comscore. <\/p>\n \u201cThe performance of \u2018Project Hail Mary\u2019 is a momentum builder like no other and it\u2019s reinvigorating the movie marketplace,\u201d said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. \u201cThis is a momentum business, and this is exactly what the industry needed right now.\u201d<\/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 $80.5 million.<\/p>\n 2. \u201cHoppers,\u201d $18 million.<\/p>\n 3. \u201cDhurandhar: The Revenge,\u201d $10 million.<\/p>\n 4. \u201cReady or Not 2: Here I Come,\u201d $9.1 million.<\/p>\n 5. \u201cReminders of Him,\u201d $8 million.<\/p>\n 6. \u201cScream 7,\u201d $4.3 million.<\/p>\n 7. \u201cGoat,\u201d $3.7 million.<\/p>\n 8. \u201cUndertone,\u201d $3 million.<\/p>\n 9. \u201cThe Pout-Pout Fish,\u201d $1.5 million.<\/p>\n 10. \u201cMET Opera: Tristan und Isolde,\u201d $722,499.<\/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.click2houston.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":2341627,"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-2341626","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\/1774244172_\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\/2341626","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=2341626"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341626\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2341628,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2341626\/revisions\/2341628"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2341627"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2341626"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2341626"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2341626"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}