SUNDAY AM writethru after Saturday 9:38 p.m. post: Amazon MGM Studios‘ Project Hail Mary had a blessed Saturday, chalking up $27.1 million, just 18% off its Friday/preview’s $33.1M. That rockets this Ryan Gosling-starring, Lord & Miller-directed sci-fi pic to a magnificent $80.6M. Worldwide opening is fantastic, near $141M, which is the best for an MPA title so far this year.
While that’s the second-best domestic start for a non-franchise movie after Oppenheimer ($82.4M), it’s the best opening for a non-franchise movie in March (ahead of Jordan Peele’s Us ($71M). Interesting enough, the trajectory for Project Hail Mary is similar to Oppenheimer, which posted Friday/previews of $33M but dipped 21% on Saturday with $26.2M. Oppenheimer‘s Sunday was $23.1M. If Project Hail Mary is north of that, it will be the best start for a non-franchise movie at the domestic B.O. Currently, the movie produced by Amy Pascal, Rachel O’Connor, Andy Weir and Aditya Sood is eyeing $20.3M today.
Also, interesting to note that Oppenheimer was rated R, whereas Project Hail Mary is PG-13. In presales, Project Hail Mary did look like Oppenheimer, but it wasn’t keen to call it as such. That’s because Oppenheimer was in rarefied air with the whole Barbenheimer of it all. Sans Barbie, it could be argued that Oppenheimer opens to $60M.
Project Hail Mary also marks the best domestic opening ever for an Amazon MGM Studios movie, the best opening for Lord & Miller as directors (ahead of The Lego Movie‘s $69M opening), and it’s Gosling’s second-best debut after Barbie ($162M).
EntTelligence reports that 5 million people went to see Project Hail Mary this past weekend; Oppenheimer drew 5.9M. Average ticket prices for the pic were $15.53 (general) and $18.89 (PLFs). The bulk of attendance yesterday was between 1-5 p.m. (31%) and 5-8 p.m. (35%).
Project Hail Mary came to be as follows: Gosling had the rights to the Weir novel. He brought it to Pascal who then attached Phil Lord and Christopher Miller. Why these guys? Because they have a knack for making feel-good movies about people who might not be compatible come together to solve impossible problems. It’s a friendship story, and that’s what they do well (read Lego Movie and their animated Spider-Verse productions.
Said Amazon MGM Studios Head of Domestic Theatrical Distribution Kevin Wilson: “We believe deeply in the Hail Mary, and it’s clear audiences do as well. What we’re seeing in theaters — the energy, the exit scores, the word of mouth — is everything we believed this film would deliver. Andy Weir’s beloved novel gave us a powerful foundation, and Phil Lord and Christopher Miller have created a visually stunning, heart-gripping film led by the brilliant Ryan Gosling that demands to be experienced on the biggest screen possible–together, with a crowd. When you combine that with the exceptional critical response and strong audience reactions, you tend to find yourself in rarefied air.”
Wilson added, “And it leaves no doubt that Ryan Gosling is a singular star that has the massive global appeal and charisma to anchor a story like this.”
More updated stats: Imax and PLFs are repping 54% of North American sales, with Imax alone generating 22% of the weekend.
This weekend’s top-grossing venue is AMC Lincoln Square 13 in NYC, at $253,000-plus so far. Gosling made a surprise appearance there:
The first extended footage for Project Hail Mary was shown during Amazon MGM’s first stage appearance at CinemaCon’s Colosseum theater last spring. This was followed by a big splash at San Diego Comic-Con in Hall H, where the studio pulled back the curtains on the auditorium’s surround screens and showed off the first trailer with Gosling, Weir, Lord and 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 integrations during Super Bowl LX, the NBA All-Star Game and the Winter Olympics. In addition, there was a coordinated light show in Taipei, Toronto and Berlin over the past week. Pic’s partnerships include NASA, JPL, international space agencies and more.
Elsewhere this frame, Hindi movie Dhurandhar: The Revenge is ahead of Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, $9.5M–$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. Searchlight was trying to find the best date for the film in the end, moving the sequel’s release a mere seven week ago. The Radio Silence-directed movie was originally set for April 10 in the second weekend of Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which will absorb even more atmosphere than what Project Hail Mary is taking up here. Twenty-one offshore territories delivered $2.8M for a global start of $11.9M.
Dhurandhar: The Revenge reps an opening-weekend record for a Bollywood movie in North America, the previous record held by 2023’s Pathaan which opened to $6.9M three-day total, and a five-day of $9.5M. Box Office Mojo notes, “This is an incredible opening, especially for a four-hour movie playing to just 3% of the population.” The first movie, 2025’s Dhurandhar, was the highest-grossing Bollywood movie stateside with north of $20M.
In arthouse land, A24 had Sofia Coppola’s first documentary Marc by Sofia, about fashion designer Marc Jacobs as he preps his 2024 spring collection. Booked at two theaters in NYC, Marc made $46,800 for a per theater of $23,400. Marc by Sofia will expand to top cities next weekend.
-
Project Hail Mary (Amz) 4007 theaters, Fri $33.1M, Sat $27.1M Sun $20.3M 3-day $80.6M/Wk 1
-
Hoppers (Dis) 3,675 (-325) theaters, Fri $5.4M (-26%) Sat $7.2M Sun $5.4M 3-day $18M (-37%), Total $120.3M/Wk 3
-
Dhurandhar: The Revenge (Moviegoer) 987 theaters, Thu $3.9M Fri $2.96M Sat $3.88M Sun $2.7M 3-day $9.57M, Total $13.5M/Wk 1
-
Ready or Not 2: Here I Come (Sea) 3,010 theaters, Fri $3.8M Sat $3.1M Sun $2.2M 3-day $9.1M/Wk 1
-
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
-
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
-
Goat (Sony) 2,537 (-409) theaters, Fri $1.1M (-11%) Sat $1.4M Sun $960K 3-day $3.5M (-25%), Total $97.5M/Wk 6
8 undertone (A24) 2,570 theatres, Fri $938K (-79%) Sat $1.2M Sun $854K 3-day $3M (-67%) Total $15.2M/Wk 2
-
Pout-Pout Fish (Viva) 1,854 theaters, Fri $495K, Sat $460K Sun $545K 3-day $1.5M/Wk 1
-
MET Opera: Tristan und Isolde (Fathom) 709 theaters Sat $722K, Weekend $722K/Wk 1
UPDATED, Saturday AM: In what has been the best use of theatrical by a streamer so far, Amazon MGM Studios’ 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.'”
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.
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.
In addition, Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come did $1.2M in previews with a 91
Source: deadline.com