‘Project Hail Mary’ scores biggest opening weekend of 2026

LOS ANGELES – “Project Hail Mary” opened with $80 million this weekend to lead all films in North America, according to industry estimates released Sunday.

The space drama starring Ryan Gosling, which was distributed by Amazon MGM Studios, also claimed the biggest opening weekend of the year so far, topping the $63 million made by “Scream 7” in its opening at the end of February.

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Ryan Gosling attends the premiere of “Project Hail Mary” at Lincoln Center Plaza on Wednesday, March 18, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)

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Pixar’s “Hoppers” grossed $18 million Friday through Sunday in its third week, Comscore reported.

The four-hour Indian action epic “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” opened in third place with $10 million.

“Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” opened with $9.1 million, followed by “Reminders of Him,” which took in $8 million.
The aforementioned “Scream 7” made another $4.3 million in its fourth weekend for sixth place.

Rounding out the top 10 releases were “GOAT” ($3.5 million), “Undertone” ($3 million), “The Pout-Pout Fish” ($1.5 million) and “The Metropolitan Opera: Tristan und Isolde” ($722,499).

$142 million box office haul

This weekend’s overall three-day box office haul was estimated at $142 million. The year-to-date total is $1.595 billion — up 21% from the figure at this time last year, according to Comscore.

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“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.”

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 “Creed III” ($58 million in 2023).

Not accounting for inflation, “Project Hail Mary” also scored the second biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind only “Oppenheimer,” which opened to $82.4 million in 2023.

It’s now one of only three non-franchise movies in the past decade to open over $70 million (the third is Jordan Peele’s “Us” ). In the realm of modern space operas, it exceeded the debuts of “The Martian,” also an Andy Weir adaptation that opened around $54.3 million in 2015, “Gravity” ($55.6 million in 2013) and “Interstellar” ($47.5 million in 2014).

‘Project Hail Mary’ opens with $140.9 million globally

Internationally, “Project Hail Mary” earned $60.4 million from 82 markets, bringing its global total to $140.9 million.
“We all know theatrical is not an easy business. It’s tougher today I think than it’s ever been,” Kevin Wilson, Amazon MGM Studios’ head of domestic distribution, told The Associated Press on Sunday. “And sci-fi movies, to break out to a broad audience, is not the easiest thing to do.”

And yet the results of the weekend put them in “rarefied air” alongside “Oppenheimer,” which Wilson said is “certainly something special.” 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.

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, “Project Hail Mary” cost about double the “Oppenheimer” 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 “definitely recommend” the film to friends. The gender breakdown skewed slightly more male (57%), and 55% of the audience were under 35.

Ryan Gosling’s massive global appeal

In an era where the draw of movie stars is always in question, Wilson said, “It leaves no doubt that Ryan Gosling is a singular star that has the massive global appeal and charisma to anchor a story like this.”

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 “event” movies like “Project Hail Mary,” premium large format screens were in demand, making up 56% of the weekend’s gross. IMAX screens alone accounted for $$27.6 million of the global total.

“The next interesting piece will be how long can this movie play, which I think could be something special,” Wilson said.

“Project Hail Mary” will have a second weekend essentially free of big competition until it loses its IMAX screens to “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” on April 1.

“The performance of ‘Project Hail Mary’ is a momentum builder like no other and it’s reinvigorating the movie marketplace,” said Paul Dergarabedian, Comscore’s head of marketplace trends. “This is a momentum business, and this is exactly what the industry needed right now.” (With CNS and AP reports)

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