Project Hail Mary has emerged victorious in a box office battle between sci-fi titans.
2026’s Project Hail Mary is an adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel of the same name directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. It stars Ryan Gosling as a molecular biologist turned middle school teacher who is sent to space to try and discover how to prevent the sun from being consumed. The movie has already broken several box office records, earning the best domestic debut of 2026 and the best debut for an Amazon MGM Studios release, in addition to being set to have one of the 10 smallest week 2 drops of all time for a non-franchise sci-fi movie.
Per Variety, as of Sunday morning, Project Hail Mary is projected to end its sophomore weekend at the domestic box office with a 3-day total of $54.5 million, bringing its cumulative domestic total to $164.3 million. This sees it becoming the first 2026 release to climb to the top of the domestic chart for the year. The chart has been dominated for nearly three full months by James Cameron’s 2025 sci-fi blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash, which earned $153.7 million at the domestic box office since the beginning of 2026.
Previously, the movie that had come closest to unseating Avatar 3 was Pixar’s Hoppers, which is set to hit a cumulative domestic total of $138.6 million by the end of the weekend.
This box office success is likely being boosted by the fact that Project Hail Mary reviews have been downright glowing, earning the movie a Certified Fresh score of 95% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes and an even better, Verified Hot, score of 96% from audiences. While the billion-dollar blockbuster Avatar: Fire and Ash is also Verified Hot with a 90% audience score, its critic score is a significantly weaker, though still Fresh, 66%.
Ultimately, the Project Hail Mary release probably still has a way to climb in order to turn a profit. Because theaters keep half of ticket sales and publicity costs are not factored into production budgets, movies typically need to earn back two and a half times their budgets in theaters. Because the Ryan Gosling epic reportedly cost roughly $200 million, its estimated theatrical break-even point could be as high as $500 million.
However, its domestic haul this weekend pushes Project Hail Mary‘s cumulative global gross to $263 million, before the weekend’s international numbers have even been figured into its overall total. Given its record-breaking audience retention, it seems entirely likely that the movie will end up in the black.
Project Hail Mary does have significant competition coming its way, as the hotly anticipated Super Mario Galaxy Movie is due to arrive on April 1. The movie, which is a sequel to a billion-dollar animated hit based on a popular, long-running Nintendo franchise, will almost certainly debut at No. 1 worldwide. However, while there is some overlap in the audience for the two movies, Ryan Gosling’s live-action sci-fi movie should still have no trouble continuing to capture adult audiences in the coming weeks.
Enjoy ScreenRant’s box office coverage? Click below to sign up for my weekly box office newsletter (make sure to check “Box Office” in your preferences) and get exclusive analysis, predictions, and more:
- Release Date
-
March 20, 2026
- Runtime
-
156 Minutes
- Director
-
Christopher Miller, Phil Lord
- Writers
-
Drew Goddard, Andy Weir
- Producers
-
Ryan Gosling, Amy Pascal, Andy Weir, Aditya Sood, Christopher Miller, Phil Lord, Rachel O’Connor