Project Hail Mary is still soaring at the box office — and has overtaken a major franchise to become the highest-grossing Hollywood film of the year.
Ryan Gosling’s sci-fi flick brought in $54.5 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic gross to $164.3 million and putting it at the top of the United States box office chart for 2026, according to studio estimates Sunday.
The blockbuster overtook James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, which had dominated the box office for the first three months of the year. The Avatar franchise’s latest installment, which was released in December, has earned $153.7 million domestically so far in 2026.
Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, has broken several records already in its two-week run. The Amazon MGM film cost $200 million to make and has already grossed $300.8 million worldwide.
It beat out the weekend’s new horror movie They Will Kill You, which fell flat with a $5 million domestic for Warner Bros. Behind Gosling’s space epic, animated family movie Hoppers remained in second place with $12.2 million in its fourth weekend.
Globally it is the second highest-grossing film of the year, behind the Chinese racing comedy Pegasus 3 which has banked over $600 million.
Ticket sales for Project Hail Mary only dropped 32% going into its second weekend, meaning its staying power was even better than Oppenheimer’s $46.7 million in 2023.
Its $80.5 million domestic box office launch also dethroned Oppenheimer for the best non-franchise opening weekend after its global start came out to $140.9 million.
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The movie’s success is a much-needed win for Amazon MGM after a series of flops, and it shattered its previous opening weekend record of Creed III, which made $58 million in 2023.
Gosling stars in the Lord and Miller movie as a middle school science teacher who is tasked with traveling to space to save the world. The movie, which also stars actors Sandra Hüller and Lionel Boyce, was projected to hit $65 million at the domestic box office for its opening weekend, but flew past that thanks to positive reviews and trailers shown during the Oscars broadcast.
The reviews have been mostly glowing for Project Hail Mary, with The Independent’s film critic Clarisse Loughrey giving the film four stars.
Loughrey wrote that it is “an alchemically perfected blend of past sci-fi greats, with a good dose of Spielberg and Kubrick – familiar without feeling exhausted.”
Next weekend, the film will compete with Universal Pictures’ The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which is expected to have one of the biggest openings of 2026.
