Project Hail Mary Movie Blasts Off to $141M Global Opening: Ryan Gosling's Best Sci-Fi Film in Years
The Project Hail Mary movie has arrived — and the numbers are staggering. Ryan Gosling's adaptation of Andy Weir's beloved 2021 novel opened to $80.6 million domestically and $141 million globally in its debut weekend, making it the biggest box office launch of 2026 so far and the highest-ever opening for Amazon MGM Studios. With a 95 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and an "A" CinemaScore from audiences, Project Hail Mary is the rare science fiction film that critics, fans, and box office analysts all agree on.
What Is Project Hail Mary the Movie About
Science teacher Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of a mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction — but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
Like the novel, the film is set primarily on a spacecraft dubbed the Hail Mary, where Grace awakens from a coma alone with amnesia, left to deduce what his mission is. Audiences learn through flashbacks not only about his past, but about the nature of the discovery of the Petrova line — an infrared anomaly connecting the sun to Venus — and how Grace came to be aboard the ship.
Project Hail Mary Box Office: The Numbers Behind the Historic Launch
Project Hail Mary blasted off with a domestic launch of $80.6 million — the best showing of the year so far and a new best for Amazon Studios. The film follows Oppenheimer as only the second non-sequel or non-franchise film in the past decade to open to $80 million or more domestically.
Globally, the film took in $60.4 million from 82 international markets for a worldwide opening of $140.9 million. It placed No. 1 in 60 of those markets, including the United Kingdom, China, Australia, South Korea, France, Germany, Italy, Mexico, and Brazil. IMAX screens alone contributed $27.6 million to the worldwide total.
Amazon MGM Studios Head of Domestic Theatrical Distribution Kevin Wilson said audiences are seeing the film and the word of mouth is everything the studio believed it would deliver, calling it an experience that demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.
Project Hail Mary Cast and Director: Who Made the Film
Project Hail Mary is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller and written by Drew Goddard, who previously adapted Weir's The Martian into a feature film. The movie stars Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, James Ortiz, and Lionel Boyce.
Serving as cinematographer is Greig Fraser, whose credits include Dune, Dune: Part Two, The Batman, and Rogue One. Daniel Pemberton scored the film, having previously worked with Lord and Miller on the Spider-Verse animated films.
The film's score, consisting of 38 tracks, was released digitally on March 20, 2026. The movie also features fourteen other songs, including "Sign of the Times" by Harry Styles and "Two of Us" by The Beatles.
How Project Hail Mary the Film Compares to the Book
Andy Weir self-published The Martian in 2011 before it became a global sensation. In 2021, he published Project Hail Mary, also about a lone astronaut lost in space, and it won the Hugo Award for Best Novel. MGM had already acquired the rights to the book even before it was published, hoping to adapt it for the screen.
The digitally produced movie was transferred to film stock and then re-digitized to achieve the visual warmth of analog film — a technical choice that gives the picture a distinctive look unlike most modern science fiction blockbusters.
Audience reaction has been overwhelmingly positive toward the adaptation's faithfulness. Rotten Tomatoes' critics consensus calls it a visually dazzling space odyssey carried along by the gravitational pull of Ryan Gosling at his most winning — a near-miraculous fusion of smarts and heart. Audiences gave it an "A" CinemaScore.
Project Hail Mary Movie Reviews: What Critics Are Saying
With 299 critics reviews counted, the film holds a 95 percent fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Metacritic assigned a score of 77 out of 100 based on 54 critics, indicating generally favorable reviews.
One critic called it a masterpiece of a family popcorn movie with eye-popping handcrafted production design and outstanding creature design and puppetry. A dissenting voice from The Globe and Mail argued the film lands as a grand act of cinematic recycling, fusing familiar bits into something determined to please crowds rather than challenge them.
The alien character Rocky — Grace's unexpected companion aboard the Hail Mary — has already become a breakout pop culture figure, with social media flooded with reactions from viewers who were caught off guard by their emotional response to the creature.
Project Hail Mary Runtime, Rating, and Where to See It Now
Project Hail Mary is rated PG-13 and runs 2 hours and 36 minutes. It was released in the United States on March 20, 2026, by Amazon MGM Studios with a production budget of $108 million.
The film is Amazon MGM's first commercial hit of 2026, arriving as the studio unveils its first full theatrical slate of 13 films through December. Analysts say it is arriving at a time when audiences are looking for escapism from real-world headlines and is the kind of rare film that will continue drawing crowds for weeks to come.
The Project Hail Mary movie is now playing in theaters nationwide in standard, IMAX, and premium large-format screenings.
