Project Hail Mary Breaks 3 Major Box Office Records As Opening Weekend Total Is Revealed

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Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) waking up from coma in Project Hail Mary

Published Mar 22, 2026, 10:14 AM EDT

Rianna is the Movie News Editor for ScreenRant. After earning her BA in Film Studies, she began her career as an entertainment writer, contributing to several publications before joining ScreenRant. Her dissertation on the impact of streaming on traditional cinema sharpened her focus on the ever-evolving world of film and media. With 6 years in the industry, Rianna continues to cover the stories she loves while also advocating for awareness and representation of rare disabilities, such as Moebius Syndrome, which she lives with.

Project Hail Mary is shooting for the stars as it broke three major box office records during its opening weekend.

Deadline reports that Project Hail Mary has broken three box office records, including the AmazonMGM Studios record, Phil Lord and Chris Miller's record, and the record for a non-franchise March opening. The movie failed to topple Oppenheimer's record for a non-franchise/non-sequel movie, which is at $82.4 million, but its impressive opening of $80.6 million is still a major achievement.

Lord and Miller, who directed the sci-fi epic, previously had their best opening weekend with the animated comedy The Lego Movie ($69 million), and it's Gosling's second-best opening weekend after Barbie, which grossed $162 million. Oppenheimer's Sunday reached $23.1 million, and at the time of writing, Project Hail Mary is expected to hit $20.3 million.

It has been reported that Project Hail Mary has a staggering production budget of $248 million, meaning that in order to break even, the movie will need to make 2.5x its budget, including marketing costs, which will be around the $500 million to $600 million mark. Christopher Nolan's historical drama Oppenheimer produced similar numbers during its opening weekend and managed to gross $975.8 million worldwide at the box office.

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