Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” Takes Off with the Biggest Opening of 2026 at Record-Shattering $80M
Ryan Gosling’s “Project Hail Mary” Takes Off with the Biggest Opening of 2026 at Record-Shattering $80M
Tommy McArdleMon, March 23, 2026 at 3:20 PM UTC
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Ryan Gosling in Project Hail MaryCredit: Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios -
Ryan Gosling's Project Hail Mary made a whopping $80.6 million at the domestic box office in its opening weekend, the most of any movie so far in 2026
The movie is now the seventh highest-grossing film of 2026 in North America
Gosling stars in Project Hail Mary as a middle school science teacher who finds himself thrust into space on a mission to save Earth and other planets from disaster
Ryan Gosling's new movie earned the best opening weekend at the domestic box office so far this year.
Project Hail Mary, which stars Gosling, 45, as a middle school science teacher thrust into space in a desperate mission to save Earth, made a whopping $80.6 million at the domestic box office after it opened in theaters on Friday, March 20. The movie made an additional $60.4 million worldwide and stands out as the largest opening for an Amazon MGM Studios movie ever, ahead of 2023's Creed III, and the largest domestic debut of the year ahead of February's Scream 7.
Project Hail Mary's impressive opening weekend makes it already the seventh highest-grossing movie of the year in North America overall. Avatar: Fire and Ash ($153.5 million) remains the highest-grossing movie of 2026, with Pixar's animated feature Hoppers ($120.3 million) and Scream 7 ($114.5 million) just behind, per Box Office Mojo.
Ryan Gosling in Project Hail MaryCredit: Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios
Aside from Project Hail Mary, Hoppers made $18 million over the weekend, while the Indian thriller Dhurandhar The Revenge made $9.5 million. According to distributor Moviegoers Entertainment, this is the biggest opening weekend ever for a Bollywood film in North America. Samara Weaving's slasher sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come made $9.1 million in its opening weekend.
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Project Hail Mary is adapted from author Andy Weir's 2021 novel of the same name. The movie is directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller (21 Jump Street, the animated Spider-Verse movies) and costars Gosling with Sandra Hüller and a lovable alien named Rocky, who comes to life in the movie with a combination of puppetry work and advance animatronics from voice actor and puppeteer James Ortiz and effects supervisor Neil Scanlan.
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Ryan Gosling in Project Hail MaryCredit: Jonathan Olley/Amazon MGM Studios
“I don't like to call him a puppet, but they're calling him a puppet,” Gosling recently joked with PEOPLE, while speaking of Rocky. “I think he's more of a … Well, he's a diva, let's be honest. Very high-maintenance. Has his own glam squad.”
Project Hail Mary is in theaters now.
on People
Source: “AOL Entertainment”
