Project Hail Mary has emerged victorious in a box office battle between sci-fi titans.
Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, Project Hail Mary (2026) is a film based on Andy Weir’s popular novel. Ryan Gosling plays a scientist-turned-teacher who is launched into space on a critical mission: to save the sun from being extinguished. The movie has quickly become a box office hit, achieving the biggest opening weekend of 2026 and the best debut ever for an Amazon MGM Studios film. It’s also predicted to have remarkably strong staying power, with early numbers suggesting it will be among the top ten non-sequel sci-fi films in terms of how little its box office drops in its second week.
According to Variety, Project Hail Mary is expected to earn $54.5 million this weekend, bringing its total domestic earnings to $164.3 million. This makes it the first film released in 2026 to reach the number one spot at the box office. For almost three months, James Cameron’s 2025 sci-fi hit, Avatar: Fire and Ash, had been leading the charts, earning $153.7 million domestically since the start of 2026.
Before this weekend, the film closest to surpassing Avatar 3 in box office numbers was Pixar’s Hoppers, which is expected to reach a total of $138.6 million domestically.
The movie is doing well at the box office, and positive reviews are likely a big reason why. Project Hail Mary has received fantastic reviews, earning a 95% rating from critics and an impressive 96% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes. While Avatar: Fire and Ash is also popular with audiences (90% approval), critics haven’t been as enthusiastic, giving it a 66% rating.
More to come…
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2026-03-29 18:50