Weekend Box Office: Project Hail Mary Scores Big Win for Amazon MGM
The Ryan Gosling sci-fi adventure earned the studio's biggest opening haul and maintained the best Tomtometer score for a wide release in 2026.
Last weekend those responsible for bringing Rocky back to the big screen, Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler, both won Oscars. Less than a week later, a new Rocky was born on the big screen opposite Ryan Gosling. Great reviews from critics have been building buzz for several weeks, and it resulted in Amazon MGM having its best opening to date. Now will word-of-mouth contribute to it becoming Amazon’s first major success since acquiring MGM, and will it be that studio’s first great success since, well, the Creed films?
King of the Crop: Project Hail Mary Scores Big Win for Amazon MGM
Ryan Gosling was certainly an integral part to the success of Barbie, but it was the brand and Margot Robbie that had top billing. Up until now, Gosling’s top opening was part of another brand in Blade Runner 2049, which opened to $32.7 million back in 2017. Last year’s The Fall Guy ($27.7 million) was considered a major flop (as was BR2049), but don’t forget the success of La La Land, which grossed over $446 million worldwide, and surely someone wants a shoutout to The Notebook’s $81 million domestic haul from 2004. This weekend’s release of Project Hail Mary got off to a great start with $80.6 million. The Amazon MGM release based on the popular novel by Martian writer Andy Weir is carrying a hefty price tag of $200 million, the most expensive project to be headlined by Gosling to date. Does it have a chance of hitting the profit column in theaters?
The Martian with Matt Damon opened to $54.3 million in October 2015 and went on to gross more than four times that with $228.3 million domestic and over $619 million globally. Project Hail Mary just had the ninth-best March opening ever with $80.5 million. That is after earlier projections had it as low as $50 million some weeks ago before it rose to the mid-60s in the run up to its release. Confidence in a great movie and getting the word out early with critics boosting support seems to have worked. If it had opened under its original projections, it is interesting to note that, of the March releases to open between $50-70 million, only one made it over $200 million, and that was Disney’s 2015 live-action Cinderella.
Five of those 11 films were even animated, and only four tripled their opening weekend. In fact only seven films in March to open over $50 million tripled their start, and six of them were animated, with Dune: Part Two being the exception. So perhaps a combination of sci-fi and family appeal will help give Hail Mary the push it needs for the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller adaptation to be a winner for Amazon MGM after the triple duds of Mercy, Melania, and Crime 101 this year. $70+ million March openers have not always translated to $200 million, as John Wick: Chapter 4, Us, and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire will tell you
Here is an interesting stat, though: Certified Fresh at 95% on the Tomatometer, Project Hail Mary has earned the best score for any wide release in 2026. Audiences have given it an A Cinemascore. Films that have had that grade, a 90%+ score on the Tomatometer, and a $75-90 million opening have included Skyfall, Dune: Part Two, Oppenheimer, 2009’s Star Trek, and Zootopia. All grossed at least $250 million. Yes, Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban and X-Men: Days of Future Past also opened to over $90 million and didn’t clear as much, but $233 million as a floor is a reasonable concession to get this to the half million that Amazon MGM is hoping for. Internationally it added $60 million for an opening of nearly $141 million.
Tales of the top 10: Hoppers Holds Strong, Ready or Not 2 Opens Low
Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers fell to second, but with only a 37% drop to $18 million. After 17 days the original animated feature is up to $120.3 million. Looking at other animated March releases, we can see Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax ($158.3 million), Ice Age: The Meltdown ($147.2 million), Monsters vs. Aliens ($140.2 million), How to Train Your Dragon ($133.4 million), Kung Fu Panda 4 ($132.9 million), Home ($129.0 million), The Croods ($125.3 million), Horton Hears a Who ($117.5 million), Ice Age ($116.8 million), and The Boss Baby ($116.7 million) are all higher. Hoppers’ weekend is a bit ahead of Ice Age: The Meltdown ($20.0 million) and behind The Croods ($20.6 million). Our estimate last week of finishing around $170-180 million appears to be holding, with The Super Mario Galaxy Movie entering theaters in less than 10 days. Globally the film is over $242 million with international now ahead of its domestic total, but its going to want around another $100 million overseas before it leaves theaters.
Entering in theaters in third place is Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the sequel to last year’s 3.5-hour epic that grossed $19.7 million in North America and over $137 million globally. The sequel, clocking in at nearly four hours, grossed $9.6 million over the weekend, the highest ever for a Bollywood film, and has made $13.5 million since opening on Wednesday. Dhurandhar opened to just $1.98 million in 391 theaters last December. The Revenge opened in 987 theaters.
You might think that the first Ready or Not was a big surprise hit in theaters for it to get a sequel finally so many years later. In fact, the (then) Fox Searchlight release opened to $8 million at the end of August in 2019 and went on to gross $28.7 million and a smidge more internationally. But for a $6 million production, those numbers are solid. The directors, known as Radio Silence, went on to reboot the Scream series, for better or worse, and had great success there. Their vampire film, Abigail, was a bit of a disappointment, grossing only $42 million worldwide on a $28 million budget. But here they are, back with Ready or Not 2: Here I Come opening to $9.1 million. The film has been mostly well-received by critics (Certified Fresh at 76%) and has a budget closer to the original ($14 million) than their follow-up films. That said, seven years did not expand the base as much as they might have hoped for a sequel, and it will likely gross less than the original.
The latest Colleen Hoover adaptation, Reminders of Him, got off to a better debut than Regretting You, and it continues to outpace it with an $8 million second weekend (just ahead of the latter’s $7.8 million). Reminders also stands at $33.1 million after 10 days, while Regretting was at $27.2 million. The Nicholas Sparks weepie The Last Song back in 2010 had a $9.8 million second weekend and was up to $36 million. It finished with nearly $63 million. Reminders finishing between $50-60 million appears to be the play. That, plus its international haul of an additional $20 million to date, will be a victory for the $25 million production.
Scream 7, the highest-grossing film in the franchise, made $4.3 million in its fourth weekend, less than what Scream VI did ($5.33 million), Scream 3 ($5.02 million), and 2022’s Scream ($4.75 million) did. But 7’s domestic gross is higher than any of them, now sitting at over $114 million. Globally it is over $193 million and will be the third Hollywood release to hit $200 million across the globe this year. The film needed to get over $127.2 million in order to double up its opening weekend, which isn’t going to happen. Last December’s Five Nights At Freddy’s 2 opened to $64 million and finished with $127.7 million for a multiple of 1.9956.
Sony’s animated GOAT added $3.5 million to its domestic haul, which now stands at over $97.5 million. It will hit $100 million, but internationally it has failed to draw the crowd it needs to be in profit when it leaves theaters. Its $77 million global haul to date has the $90 million production at $174 million total. Domestically, it’s still not bad for an original animated family film. Another animated film sneaking into the top 10 this week is Viva Pictures’ release of The Pout-Pout Fish. It opened in 1,854 theaters, grossed $1.5 million and has a respectable 69% on the Tomatometer from critics who were made aware of its release.
A24’s release of Undertone got off to a solid start for the half-million-budgeted film. This week it fell 68% to $3 million. The 10-day start of $15.2 million is the 10th best in the company’s history, coming up behind Midsommar ($15.99 million) and The Iron Claw ($15.96 million). The biggest drops they have had for their wide releases of 2,000 theaters or higher include The Front Room (-74.0%), MaXXXine and The Smashing Machine (both falling 69.1%), Y2K (-67.6%), Men (-63.5%), Eddington (-62.9%), and The Green Knight (-61.8%). Undertone joins that list, but the money is already in the bank, which puts the film on a much more favorable list.
Since The Blair Witch Project grossed over $140 million in 1999 while costing just a half a million, there haven’t been many to pull off such a feat with a budget under $1 million. Undertone now joins a very select group of films that includes Paranormal Activity ($107.9 million), Napoleon Dynamite ($44.5 million), Fireproof ($33.4 million), Open Water ($30.6 million), Searching ($26.0 million), The Gallows ($22.7 million), Fruitvale Station ($16.1 million), His Only Son ($12.2 million), and Terrifier 2 ($10.6 million). In other news, Fathom’s release of the MET Opera presentation of Tristan und Isolde made enough on Saturday ($722,000) to reach the top 10.
Beyond the Top 10: Wuthering Heights and THE BRIDE! Miss the Cut
Speaking of which, Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights” grossed $475,000 to bring its domestic total over $83 million. Globally the film is over $234 million and is one of the true early successes of 2026. Maggie Gyllenhaal’s THE BRIDE! lost nearly 2,600 theaters this week, and as a result it fell nearly 87% down to just $275,000. It is the second $90+ million budgeted film this year to last only two weeks in the top 10. That is a very exclusive list over the years, and 2026 has added this and Greenland 2: Migration to it.
In limited release news, Roadside’s release of Stephanie Laing’s Tow with Rose Byrne grossed $131,020 in 180 theaters. Sofia Coppola’s documentary about Marc Jacobs, Marc by Sofia, was released in two theaters by A24 this weekend, and it grossed an estimated $46,000. It will expand into 10 markets next week. Christian Petzold’s Mirrors No. 3 made $36,666 in three theaters. Music Box Films’ Late Shift made $14,300 in six theaters. In single theater news, Watermelon Pictures’ Palestine ’36 grossed a hefty $36,043, while Grace Glowicki’s Stink-O-Vision film Dead Lover, which premiered at Sundance 2025, opened exclusively at New York’s IFC center and grossed $13,500.
On the Vine: Zazie Beetz Cleans House in They Will Kill You
Premieres from the South by Southwest Film Festival are a big part of next week’s releases. The big wide release includes Zazie Beetz in the Kill Bill/Sam Raimi mash-up of They Will Kill You from Warner Bros. In limited release there is also The Craft in a shopping mall, aka Forbidden Fruits, with Lili Reinhart, as well as last year’s SXSW premiere of Fantasy Life with Amanda Peet. Focus also shows us how we’re all going to die with The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist.
Full List of Box Office Results: March 20-22, 2026
- Project Hail Mary – $80.6 million ($80.6 million total)
- Hoppers – $18.0 million ($120.3 million total)
- Dhurandhar: The Revenge – $9.6 million ($13.6 million total)
- Ready or Not 2: Here I Come – $9.1 million ($9.1 million total)
- Reminders of Him – $8.0 million ($33.1 million total)
- Scream 7 – $4.3 million ($114.5 million total)
- GOAT – $3.5 million ($97.5 million total)
- Undertone – $3.0 million ($15.2 million total)
- The Pout-Pout Fish – $1.5 million ($1.5 million total)
- MET Opera: Tristan und Isolde – $722,000 ($722,000)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Amazon MGM Studios
