Project Hail Mary continues its out-of-this-world performance at the global box office, where it rocketed past the $300 million mark in its second weekend to become the top-grossing Hollywood title of 2026 to date and Amazon MGM Studios’ top earner, not adjusted for inflation.
In North America, the Ryan Gosling-led movie adaptation of Andy Weir’s sci-fi novel, about a geeky-yet-witty scientist and an alien nicknamed Rocky, fell a scant 32 percent to $54.5 million from 4,007 theaters to boast the best hold in recent memory for a film opening in the same range, including Oppenheimer and Dune: Part 2, both of which debuted to $82.5 million, not adjusted for inflation. 2023’s Oppenheimer dropped 43 percent to $46.2 million in its sophomore outing, while 2004’s Dune dipped 44 percent to $46.7 million.
That puts Project Hail Mary‘s 10-day domestic cume at $164.3 million. Overseas, its total is $136.2 million for an astonishing early global total of $300.8 million, well ahead of the $276 million earned by Creed III in its entire run (not that the Creed threequel wasn’t a major success).
Opening well ahead of expectations last weekend, the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller-directed Project Hail Mary blasted off with a domestic launch of $80.6 million, the second-best in a decade for a non-sequel or franchise title behind Oppenheimer‘s $82.5 million start and the best showing of the year to date. Gosling’s top-grossing film of all time is Barbie, but Project Hail Mary is his biggest domestic opening featuring the actor in a leading role, not adjusted for inflation. It is also a domestic best for Lord and Miller.
Hail Mary is also doing far bigger business than expected overseas, where sci-fi can be an even tougher sell than it is in the U.S., especially in certain European countries and key regions in Latin America and Asia. A week ago, Hail Mary opened to $60.4 million from its first 80 foreign markets for a worldwide bow of $141 million, also the best start of 2026 so far for a Hollywood title. This weekend, it grossed another $54.1 million from 86 markets, a decline of just 5 percent.
Project Hail Mary‘s wit and heartwarming undercurrents are leading to the sort of unanticipated and collective word-of-mouth that comes along once in a blue moon for theater owners and studios.
The family-friendly film stars Gosling as an ostracized biologist now teaching high school who is tapped by the head of an international consortium (Sandra Hüller) to help stop the sun from dimming and usher in another ice age. Gosling’s character doesn’t remember any of this upon awaking to find himself alone on a ship hurtling through space. The rest of the crew has died, but he proceeds and discovers an alien life form that is trying to solve the same problem. The craggy-looking alien, who is given the nickname “Rocky,” learns how to communicate, and, working step by step, they use their growing bond to solve the problem (the merchandising possibilities related to rocky and his brethren are tantalizing, to say the least, should Hail Mary transform into a franchise).
Multiple sources say a Hail Mary sequel is a distinct possibility. Weir has said he has ideas for a follow-up, but to date, there are no official conversations between the author — who is in the driver’s seat in terms of all things related to Hail Mary — and Amazon MGM, but insiders say a sequel is far from out of the question.
The movie arrives at a defining moment for Hollywood. Amazon MGM is on the verge of becoming a major Hollywood studio once it completes building out its international distribution system — MGM lost its major-studio status in the early 1970s — just as David Ellison‘s Skydance, which became the new owner of Paramount in August 2025, prepares to add Warner Bros. Discovery to the portfolio. Hail Mary raises Amazon’s profile at the perfect time for agents and talent worried about fewer buyers.
While Ellison says he will keep the two movie studios separate, no one is sure how that will work. By all accounts, a vertical merger of this size would be heavily scrutinized by Washington regulators, but President Donald Trump is a close ally with Oracle founder and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father. Trump has also praised the younger Ellison and supported the Paramount-Skydance marriage after sweeping changes were made at CBS News. Trump is widely expected to exact changes at CNN as well if Ellison succeeds in buying WBD, the owner of the cable channel.
Hail Mary wasn’t the only winning pass driving up year-over-year revenue. In its fourth weekend, Pixar and Disney’s Hoppers became the second-biggest Hollywood offering of 2026 at the global box office with $297 million in ticket sales (Chinese sports comedy Pegasus 3 ranks No. 1 overall at $609 million). Domestically, the originated family film fell 31 percent — the lowest drop for any title in the top 15 — to $12.2 million from 3,650 cinemas for a domestic tally of $138.6 million as it continues to redeem Pixar’s ability to turn out original fare (Elio‘s entire domestic cume was $72.9 million). Overseas, it earned another $24.8 million from 51 markets for a foreign tally of $159 million; Disney is going slowly in terms of rolling the film rollout offshore in order to take advantage of rolling spring breaks.
Duking it out for third place are New Line and Skydance’s They Will Kill You and two holdovers: Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the latest installment in the Indian action-thriller starring Ranveer Singh, and Universal’s movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover‘s novel Reminders of Him. The official order will be determined Monday when weekend actuals are tallied by Comscore.
Sunday estimates show They Will Kill You coming in third domestically with an estimated $5 million from 2,778 theaters. Heading into the frame, the pic was expected to take in $8 million or more domestically. New Line, a division of Warner Bros., and Skydance partnered on the action-horror-comedy long before talks of the merger.
They Will Kill You follows Satan-worshipping tenants living in a luxury New York City building who perform ritualistic killings on their mostly poor and marginalized staff. Filmmaker Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) directed from a script he co-wrote with Alex Litvak. The film has received solid, but not spectacular, reviews and audience scores.
Another problem is an an over-abundance of horror titles. Searchlight Pictures’ horror-comedy Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, opening only a week ago, earned $4 million from 3,010 cinemas in its second weekend for a domestic cume of $16.3 million domestically and $22.3 million globally.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the latest installment in the Indian action-thriller starring Ranveer Singh, fell 52 percent in its second weekend to $4.8 million from 987 locations for a domestic tally of $22.9 million and worldwide total nearing $150 million, according to Comscore.
Reminders of Him took in an estimated $4.7 million domestically from 3,189 theaters in its third weekend and $4.9 million overseas from 67 markets for a global tally of $69.5 million. Like Hail Mail and Hoppers, the female-fueled pic, which rounded out the top five, also enjoyed a great hold (41 percent).
Other weekend highlights: Paramount’s Scream 7 crossed the $200 million mark at the worldwide box office in its fifth weekend, while Sony Pictures Animation‘s GOAT crossed $100 million domestically in its seventh.
This story was originally published March 28 at 12:59 p.m.
