“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen in a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.” Starring science fiction epic Ryan Gosling It earned about $80.5 million in ticket sales in its opening weekend in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that translates to around 5 million ticket buyers.
“Project Hail Mary” has secured the biggest box office opening of 2026
The PG-13-rated film opened on 4,007 screens and easily topped the domestic box office charts, surpassing expectations for the year’s biggest and delivering a record opening for studio Amazon MGM, whose previous best was “Creed III” ($58 million in 2023).“Project Hail Mary” also scored the second-biggest opening for a non-franchise film behind “Oppenheimer,” which had $82.4 million in 2023. It’s now one of only three non-franchise films in the last decade to open over $70 million (the third is Jordan Peele’s “Us”).
‘Project Hail Mary’ is the number one space movie at the box office
In the modern space movie genre, the film surpassed the openings of ‘The Martian’, Andy Weir’s adaptation which opened to around $54.3 million in 2015, ‘Gravity’ which earned $55.6 million in 2013 and ‘Interstellar’ which earned $47.5 million in 2014.Internationally, ‘Project Hail Mary’ has earned $60.4 million from 82 markets, bringing its total to $140.9 million.
About the ‘Agur Maria’ project
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, ‘Project Hail Mary’ cost double the production budget of ‘Oppenheimer’, with a price tag of US$200 million. But it also has strong critical and audience scores and can be targeted for the long term. The film revolves around Gosling’s character who wakes up alone and with little memory in a spaceship, where his ostensible mission is to try to save the sun from dying. As has become the norm for such “event” films, large format premium screens were in demand, accounting for 56% of the weekend’s gross. IMAX screens alone took in $27.6 million worldwide. ‘Project Hail Mary’ will have a second weekend with essentially no major competition until it loses IMAX screens to ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ on April 1st.
‘hoppers ‘ continues to run strong
Disney and Pixar’s ‘Hoppers’ ranked second on the list, earning $18 million at the box office. The film’s total domestic collection now stands at USD 120.38 million. The animated film, which was a box office hit, also raked in a whopping $122.20 million from international markets, taking its total to $242.58 million worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.
‘Dhurandhar: Revenge ‘ opens with the third largest collection
Bollywood sequel ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ directed and starring Aditya Dhar Ranveer Singh in the lead, it made around US$9.6 million in its opening weekend, according to the US distributor from Friday to Sunday. Meanwhile, Comscore predicts a slightly higher figure of USD 10 million. On the other hand, Box Office Mojo has reported the gross collection at the box office, which is around 13.51 million USD.The film opened at the box office, earning $3.94 million on Thursday and took a dip at the collections on Friday, with ‘Project Hail Mary’ earning $2.96 million. However, the film showed good growth at the box office on Saturday, earning $3.88 million and Sunday’s early estimates put the film at $2.72 million.
‘Dhurandhar 2’ beat ‘Ready Or Not 2’
In a surprise at the box office, the Bollywood film ‘Ready or Not’ took center stage over its sequel ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’. The film grossed $9.1 million. Universal’s adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s ‘Reminders of Him’ rounded out the top five with US$8 million in its second weekend.
Top 10 movies at the domestic box office
As final domestic figures are released on Monday, this list takes into account estimated Friday-Sunday ticket sales at theaters in the US and Canada, according to Comscore:1. “Hail Mary Project” – 80.5 million USD.2. “Hoppers” – 18 million USD.3. ‘Dhurandhar: The Revenge’ – USD 10 million.4. ‘Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’ – USD 9.1 million.5. “His Souvenirs” – 8 million USD.6. ‘Scream 7’ – US$4.3 million.7. “Goat” – 3.7 million USD.8. ‘Undertone’ – USD 3 million.9. ‘The Pout-Pout Fish’ – US$1.5 million.10. ‘MET Opera: Tristan und Isolde’ – US$722,499.
