New Sci-Fi Masterpiece Overtakes J.J. Abrams’ Bold Franchise-Starter at the Box Office

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Published Apr 5, 2026, 11:12 AM EDT

Rohan Naahar is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he'll watch anything once.

He has covered everything from Marvel to the Oscars, and Marvel at the Oscars. He also writes obsessively about the box office, charting the many hits and misses that are released weekly, and how their commercial performance shapes public perception. In his time at Collider, he has also helped drive diversity by writing stories about the multiple Indian film industries, with a goal of introducing audiences to a whole new world of cinema.

Despite facing an existential threat in the form of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Project Hail Mary not only survived, but thrived at the box office. In its third weekend of release in theaters worldwide, the sci-fi epic passed a major milestone domestically and neared an even bigger one worldwide. The movie has exceeded expectations on every occasion so far and is poised to become star Ryan Gosling's top-grossing hit. Based on a novel by Andy Weir, who also wrote the book that inspired The Martian, Project Hail Mary opened to near-unanimous praise from critics and audiences. The movie marks the directorial comeback of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who hadn't directed a film in over a decade. They were, however, hard at work on Solo: A Star Wars Story before being replaced midway through production by Ron Howard.

They couldn't have asked for a better comeback than Project Hail Mary, which, along with the Spider-Verse movies that Lord and Miller produce, showcases their unique knack for making crowd-pleasing hits. In many ways, Project Hail Mary is to Amazon MGM Studios what last year's F1 was to Apple Studios. The sci-fi film was given a massive theatrical rollout across the world, with an exclusive two-week window on IMAX. The move has paid off handsomely for what is effectively a film meant for a Prime Video audience. For instance, it has already grossed twice as much as the similarly budgeted Amazon MGM title Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans.

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Here's How Much 'Project Hail Mary' Has Grossed So Far

This weekend, Project Hail Mary passed the $200 million mark domestically, overtaking the lifetime haul of Christopher Nolan's Interstellar. The movie is currently sitting at $217 million and will soon pass the $228 million haul of its spiritual precursor The Martian, starring Matt Damon and directed by Ridley Scott. With another $193 million from overseas markets, Project Hail Mary's global haul now stands at $390 million against a reported budget of $200 million. This puts the movie ahead of the $385 million that J.J. Abrams' Star Trek reboot grossed globally in 2009. Star Trek received tremendous reviews — it holds a 94% Rotten Tomatoes score compared to Project Hail Mary's 95% — and spawned two sequels. Stay tuned to Collider for more updates.