“Project Hail Mary” brought in a whopping $54.5 million and easily topped the box office for two weeks in a row. 2026 has seen hits like “Scream 7” and “Hoppers,” but “Project Hail Mary” has already grossed $164.3 million domestically and is shaping up to be the year’s first true blockbuster.
“Project Hail Mary” dropped only 32% from its opening weekend, suggesting the film has staying power. The impressive results are welcome news for Amazon MGM, which has committed to releasing about 12 movies in theaters each year and has invested heavily in theatrical films. The move comes after Amazon MGM struggled to define its filmmaking ambitions, first focusing on indies, then pivoting to streaming premieres, and more recently opting to favor populist titles for the big screen.
“Project Hail Mary” also proves that Ryan Gosling’s box office success is real. The Oscar-nominated star of “Barbie” and “La La Land” is central to the film as a schoolteacher on a desperate mission to save the planet. The film rose and fell due to Gosling’s lead performance, and he was rewarded with one of the biggest hits of his career and early awards buzz. And a big thank you to Phil Lord and Christopher Miller for bouncing back from their Solo: A Star Wars Story dismissal and delivering a crowd-pleasing film that proves they can handle a live-action space epic. Not to mention Andy Weir, author of “Project Hail Mary” and “The Martian.” His book has now inspired two box office hits. His next novel is almost certain to spark a bidding war for the film rights.
The weekend’s only major new release, “They Will Kill You,” was DOA, which earned $5 million domestically from 2,778 locations and finished in third place. The film cost Warner Bros. and New Line just $20 million to make, but the results were still dire because the studio had to split ticket sales 50-50 with theater owners. Michael De Luca and Pam Abdi helped start “Project Hail Mary” while running MGM. They left the studio to head Warner Bros. last year, and performed well at the box office, with films such as “Sinners,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Weapons” scoring commercially. However, 2026 is off to a tough start for De Luca and Abdi. “They Will Kill You” was released just weeks after “The Bride,” the studio’s $90 million steampunk remake of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” was bombed and grossed a disastrous $23.2 million worldwide.
In “They Will Kill You,” Zazie Beetz plays a housekeeper hired to clean a high-rise apartment complex where a mysterious disappearance occurred. The film co-stars Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, Tom Felton, and Myhara, and was directed and co-written by Kirill Sokolov. The film was co-financed by Nocturna Pictures, a genre label backed by David Ellison’s Skydance and It filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti. Mr. Ellison has a deal in place to buy Warner Bros. and merge it with Paramount, which he acquired last year. It helps Warner executives that their potential new boss is taking some of the blame for recent failures. Furthermore, “They Will Kill You” is not the only horror movie to struggle to attract audiences these days. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come was a huge hit in its second week of release, earning $4 million, pushing Searchlight Pictures’ domestic production budget to just $16.3 million.
Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers” came in second place over the weekend, taking in an additional $12.2 million. The family film is expected to gross $138.6 million in North America and $297.6 million worldwide in its first four weeks of release. Bollywood thriller “Durandar 2: The Revenge” came in fourth with $4.7 million, pushing its domestic gross to $22.8 million, almost surpassing “They Will Kill You,” despite showing on nearly 2,000 fewer screens.
Rounding out Friday’s top five was “Reminder of Him,” which grossed $4.7 million domestically for a box office total of $41.1 million. Universal made the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s romance novel for $25 million.
Focus Features has premiered in limited release “AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocalypse,” a look at the risks and possibilities of artificial intelligence from the creators of “Navalny” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It generated $650,000 in revenue from 786 locations. Neon also premiered “Alpha,” a body horror film from “Titan” director Julia Ducournau, which grossed just over $121,000 from 218 screens.
Universal also revived 2001’s The Mummy Returns. The adventure film grossed $600,000 at 1,300 venues for a total of $202.7 million. The studio is rebooting the series and casting original stars Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in the new sequel.
“Project Hail Mary” should soon join the blockbuster club. Next weekend, Universal and Illumination’s latest work, “Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” co-developed with Nintendo, will be released and is expected to be one of the biggest hits of 2026. For exhibitors, the year is off to a strong start, with ticket sales already up more than 25%.
