‘Project Hail Mary’ Opening to $80M U.S.

The first extended footage for Project Hail Mary was shown during Amazon MGM Studios’ first stage appearance at CinemaCon’s Colosseum theater last spring. This was followed up by a big splash at San Diego Comic-Con in Hall H, where the studio pulled back the curtains on the auditorium’s suround screens and showed off the first trailer with Gosling, Weir, Lord & Miller in attendance. The first trailer was dropped and clocked over 400M+ views, the biggest launch ever for a non-franchise / non-sequel film. Partnerships with Audible helped drive Weir’s novel back to the top of The New York Times and Audible bestseller charts. There was a Jeopardy Hail Mary stunt on social that pulled in 40M views. Recently, there was the double punch of Gosling and Harry Styles appearing on Saturday Night Live (the latter’s hit single “Sign of the Times” performed by Sandra Hüller in the pic). Gosling went on a global media tour that included stops in London, Paris, Mexico City and NYC. And let’s not forget the integrations during the Super Bowl LX, NBA All-Star Game, and Winter Olympics. In addition, there was a coordinated light show in Taipei, Toronto and Berlin during the last week. Pic’s partnerships include NASA, JPL, international space agencies and more.

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Hindi movie Dhurandhar: The Revenge is ahead of Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, $9.6M to $9.1M. Very upsetting that Ready or Not 2 didn’t scare up more. It was made for under a net $20M. What happened? Look at the grosses of the first movie (despite being a cash cow): An expanded audience wasn’t asking for a sequel.

In arthouse land, A24 had Sofia Coppola’s first documentary, Marc by Sofia, about fashion designer Marc Jacobs as he preps for his 2024 spring collection. Book at two theaters in NYC, Marc made $46,8K for a per theater of $23,4K. Marc by Sofia will expand to top cities next weekend.

We’re building the Sunday chart:

5. Reminders of Him (Uni) 3,441 (+39) Fri $2.7M (-67%) Sat $3.1M Sun $2.1M 3-day $8M (-56%), Total $33.1M/Wk 2

6. Scream 7 (Par) 2,560 (-683) theaters, Fri $1.3M (-50%) Sat $1.88M Sun $1.1M 3-day $4.3M (-50%), Total $114.5M/Wk 4

8 undertone (A24) 2,570 theatres, Fri $938K (-79%) Sat $1.2M Sun $854K 3-day $3M (-67%) Total $15.2M/Wk 2

SATURDAY AM: In what has been the best use of theatrical by a streamer so far, Amazon MGM Studio’s Project Hail Mary is answering exhibition’s prayers with a $77.1M weekend opening, nearing the record debut of a non-franchise/non-sequel movie set by Oppenheimer ($82.4M). Big credit here goes to Courtenay Valenti, Amazon MGM Studios Head of Film, Streaming and Theatrical, who greenlit this project. Ryan Gosling came in already attached as star and producer on the Andy Weir novel.  

Project Hail Mary still needs to fly by I Am Legend ($77.2M, 2007) to become the second-best start for a non-franchise/non-sequel film. The Lord and Miller-directed, Amy Pascal-produced movie is fueling a weekend that’s north of $143M for all titles, that’s +91% over the same period a year ago when Disney’s Snow White limped into theaters.

It is, indeed, rarefied air as only two non-franchise/non-sequel movies in the last decade have exceeded $60M opening weekends, that being Oppenheimer and Jordan Peele’s Us ($71M). Project Hail Mary is playing everywhere, but over-indexing in the West, Mountain, Midwest and South. AMC Lincoln Square 13 in New York is the movie’s top grossing site so far with $180.7K.

Helping fuel business this weekend is the peak of Spring Break with 38% K-12 schools off yesterday and 37% colleges which segues to 16% K-12 and 11% colleges on break by Monday.

Diversity demos show 59% Caucasian, a solid 20% Latino and Hispanic, 10% Asian American, and 6% Black. Enormous definite recommends on PostTrak with men over 25 (84%), women under and over 25 at 83%, and men under 25 at 81%. Slightly more guys than females as we noticed yesterday now at 57% to 43% women. Fifty-five percent were under 35, while 45% were over 35.

Imax and PLF tickets are repping a massive 56% of the weekend with Imax alone driving close to 24% of the gross.

Among those moviegoers who called out their streaming subscriptions: 68% said they’re Netflix subs, while 55% said they were Prime members (Why is that important? Because of the movie’s marketing).

Why are people going? 47% said it looked fun, 41% went for Gosling, and 41% went because it’s a sci-fi movie.

Meanwhile Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is getting beat by a Bollywood sequel, Dhurandhar: The Revenge, $9M to $10.5M. Frankly, I’m shocked. Yeah, sure, some people in distribution-land are like, “Disney doesn’t know how to open a horror film,” but for all that is hip in Ready or Not 2‘s casting with Sarah Michelle Gellar, Elijah Wood and Kathryn Newton, the Buffy headlines, the cult appeal of Radio Silence, and the SXSW world premiere of it all, you’d think that Ready or Not 2 would break out and become a spring event movie. There’s something missing here. It could be as simple as the sequel’s core 18-34 audience (59% here) are buying tickets to Project Hail Mary first. Sequel’s B+ CinemaScore is the same as the first movie. Note, the P&A for Bollywood movies in North America are very small stateside; the audience knows when these movies are coming out and show up. Diversity demos for Ready or Not 2 is 44% Caucasian, good 26% Latino and Hispanic, 15% Black, and 9% Asian. More female-leaning at 52%. Small amount of PLFs are only driving 10% of the weekend. The Radio Silence sequel is playing best in the West, where a quarter of the weekend’s ticket sales are coming from while the rest of the regions are playing at market averages. The AMC Burbank (LA) is the sequel’s top-grossing multiplex with $19K-plus.

According to Box Office Guru, Dhurandhar: The Revenge is on track to break the opening weekend in North America for a Bollywood film, possibly even all Indian films. Note, it’s a Hindi title, and among those, it looks to unseat 2023’s Pathaan which posted a $6.9M 3-day, $9.5M 5-day opening.

Separately, there is the Telugu-language industry (Tollywood) among Indian pics. In that genre, the biggest North American opening is owned by 2017’s Baahubali 2 with a 3-day of $10.4M, as well as RRR‘s $9.5M. Triple note, those openings include ticket prices as high as $40 which is often done for Tollywood films in the U.S. Very good sales we hear for Dhurandhar: The Revenge in NYC, Toronto, San Francisco, Vancouver, LA, Montreal, Dallas and Seattle.

Weekend estimates as of Saturday:

UPDATED, Friday PM: Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary is shooting for a massive $31M today (including previews) and the best opening of 2026 so far with $71.1M at 4,007 runs. That’s also the best opening ever for an Amazon MGM Studios movie, ahead of Creed III‘s $58.3M back in 2023.

Matinees are good, and the Lord Miler-directed and produced movie is playing broad, we hear.

If those figures hold, it will tie with Jordan Peele’s Us ($71.1M, 2019) as the fourth-best opening for a non-franchise title after Oppenheimer ($82.4M, 2023), I Am Legend ($77.2M, 2007) and once upon a time (before it was a franchise), Avatar ($77M, 2009).

Social media monitor RelishMix says the half-billion-plus social media universe is beaming, “with the loudest applause coming from book loyalists who see a rare crowd-pleaser with brains, heart and actual theatrical pull. Ryan Gosling gets treated like premium packaging for a smart sci-fi ride. The sharpest upside is comparison heat: this is being framed as better than recent Star Trek, stronger than The Martian for some, and even in the neighborhood of Rendezvous with Rama. Trailer beats spark genuine hype, even when viewers clock changes from the page. You can feel the audience wanting this one to land. ‘Hail Mary was so much better than The Martian‘ and ‘This looks a lot better than Star Trek‘ capture the mood, while translated reactions like ‘Wow, the movie of the book I loved is out’ and ‘Amaze, amaze, amaze.’”

RELATED: All The Songs In ‘Project Hail Mary’: From Harry Styles To Neil Diamond

The 520.8M filled social media universe across Facebook, X, TikTok, YouTube and Instagram is running 63% ahead of first pic sci-fi norms, and it’s also not that far from Dune: Part Two‘s 575.7M followers before opening. Of note in regards to the cast who is on social, Milana Vayntrub is contributing 1.92M followers.

RELATED: ‘Ready Or Not 2: Here I Come’ Leaves SXSW Cheering & Gasping At World Premiere

Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is looking like $3.8M today (including previews on its way to a potential $10M in fourth place at 3,010 sites. The sequel was made for less than $20M net, we hear. It’s being pushed out of third place by Hindi action sequel Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which is eyeing a great $3.6M today at 967 locations and $12.7M opening and 4-day cume north of $16M. Disney is doing better in second place, where Pixar’s Hoppers is still vibrant with $5.6M today and $21M in its third weekend for a running total by EOD Sunday of $123.3M. Fifth place goes to the second weekend of Universal’s feature take of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him at 3,441 sites with a second Friday of $2.7M, 3-day of $8.7M, -52%, and 10-day cume of $33.8M.

UPDATED, Friday AM: Previews came in at $12 million for Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary. Again, that’s an all-in previews figure, not just Thursday night.

All records listed below still stand from last night’s reporting. In addition, the Amazon MGM Studios movie scored the second-best previews ever for a non-sequel, non-franchise, after 2017’s It which did $13.5M. It also beats the previews of some big movies like Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning ($8.3M) and Gladiator II ($6.3M). Buckle up, it’s going to be a fun weekend at the B.O. Project Hail Mary is booked at 4,000 sites including all Imax, PLFs, etc.

In Thursday night Posttrak exits from Screen Engine and Comscore, 61% men showed up and 39% women with 5 stars (as we told you last night), 95% positive score and a massive 85% definite recommend. Fifty six percent previously bought tickets. Fifty-nine percent were between ages 18-34.

RELATED: The 60 Movies That Have Made More Than $1 Billion At The Global Box Office

In addition, Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come did $1.2M in previews with a 91% Rotten Tomatoes audience score. The pic is booked in 3,010 theaters including 310 PLF and 150 motion seats. Comps are The Monkey ($1.9M, $14M opening), A Knock on the Cabin ($1.5M, $14.1M opening), Primate ($1.4M, $11.2M opening) and Radio Silence’s own Abigail ($1M, $10.3M opening). The first Ready or Not opened to $8M in 2019 and did $28.7M at the domestic B.O, and $57.6M global off a $6M net production cost.

Also bound to be big this weekend is Aditya Dhar’s Dhurandhar: The Revenge with an expected weekend of $10M-plus. Pic scored the biggest opening day of all-time for a Hindi movie in North America with $3.9M yesterday. The pic is a sequel to last year’s Dhurandhar, which as the highest grossing Bollywood film of all-time in North American with over $20M (and that was off a $1.98M 3-day). That pic is currently available to watch on Netflix worldwide. In part two, Hamza Ali Mazari, whose real identity is Jaskirat Singh Rangi, pursues his undercover operation within Pakistan’s criminal world while tracking down Majo.

The top 5 for the week:

1.) Hoppers (Dis) 4,000 theaters, Wk $44M (-25%), Total $102.3M/Wk 2

2.) Reminders of Him (Uni) 3,402 theaters, Wk $25.1M/Wk 1

3.) Scream 7 (Par) 3,243 theaters, Wk $12M (-46%), Total $110.2M/Wk 3

4.) undertone (A24) 2,570 theaters, $11.7M/Wk 1

5.) GOAT (Sony) 2,946 theaters, Wk $8.1M (-6%), Total $94M/Wk 5

PREVIOUS EXCLUSIVE, Thursday PM: A non-franchise movie is making waves at the box office and we’re talking about Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary.

Sources tell us that the previews for the Phil Lord- and Christopher Miller-directed sci-fi production are north of $11 million, which takes us to an upper stratosphere that’s ahead of another non-franchise movie, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer ($10.5M). It’s also ahead of all the comps for original pics that many tracking services were pegging it to: F1 ($10M previews), Sinners ($4.7M) and Weapons ($5.7M). Project Hail Mary is based on Andy Weir’s 2021 New York Times bestseller.

In terms of the previews rollout, Amazon MGM Studios had 29 70M shows last weekend (single shows on Friday, Saturday and Sunday), followed by Prime member screenings Monday in PLFs and Imax, as well as tonight’s shows.

Before we bury the lede even further, by golly, it’s the best previews so far in 2026, ahead of Scream 7‘s $7.8M ($63.6M opening). Tracking in recent days raised the weekend forecast to north of $60M. Let’s not be over-bullish just yet, because the opening range between F1 and Oppenheimer was $57M-$82.4M. We’re also hearing the production from Amy Pascal, Ryan Gosling, Rachel O’Connor, Andy Weir and Aditya Sood landed 5 stars on tonight’s PostTrak.

In addition, Project Hail Mary reps the best previews ever for an Amazon MGM Studios release, ahead of Creed III ($5.4M, which turned in a three-day total of $58.3M, best domestic start ever for the shopping site-streamer-theatrical embracer). It’s also arguably the second-best previews ever for a Gosling movie behind Barbie ($22.3M).

The best opening for a non-franchise movie belongs to Oppenheimer ($82.4M), followed by I Am Legend ($77.2M); like Project Hail Mary, the latter was based on a novel.

Talk to anybody in distribution, and the exclamation is “this is good for the business,” read, a non-franchise title breaking out and finding a mass audience.