‘Project Hail Mary’ Blasts Off With $80.5 Million

Breitbart: The PG-13 rated film opened on 4,007 screens and easily topped the domestic box office charts, surpassing expectations and delivering a record opening for studio Amazon MGM, whose previous best was “Creed III” ($58 million in 2023). Not accounting for inflation, “Project Hail Mary” also scored the second biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind only “Oppenheimer,” which opened to $82.4 million in 2023.

It’s now one of only three non-franchise movies in the past decade to open over $70 million (the third is Jordan Peele’s “Us” ). In the realm of modern space operas, it exceeded the debuts of “The Martian,” also an Andy Weir adaptation that opened around $54.3 million in 2015, “Gravity” ($55.6 million in 2013) and “Interstellar” ($47.5 million in 2014).

Directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, “Project Hail Mary” cost about double the “Oppenheimer” production budget, with a price tag in the $200 million range. But it also carries strong reviews and audience scores and could be destined for a long run.

According to PostTrak exit polls, where it scored five out of five stars, 83% of audiences said they would “definitely recommend” the film to friends. The gender breakdown skewed slightly more male (57%), and 55% of the audience were under 35.