‘Project Hail Mary’ becomes Amazon MGM’s biggest box office success

Amazon’s bet on “Project Hail Mary” paid off, with the film recently surpassing “Creed III” to become the company’s highest-grossing movie ever.

And it’s a big gamble, with a reported budget of around $200 million. That’s a lot of money for any movie, but especially for sequels or movies that aren’t part of an existing series. Instead, the film is based on Andy Weir’s best-selling science fiction novel, which was made into a hugely successful film 10 years ago.

That’s not the only thing that makes “Project Hail Mary” feel unconventional. For long stretches of the film, Ryan Gosling is the only human actor on screen. He plays a scientist who teams up with a rock-like alien to solve the mystery of why stars, including our own, appear dark.

However, after 10 days in theaters, Project Hail Mary has grossed an estimated $164.3 million in North America and $136.2 million internationally, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The film’s final box office gross should be significantly higher after its theatrical release, as it only made $54.5 million domestically in its second weekend, down 32%.

That makes Project Hail Mary the biggest hit of 2026 (so far) and one of the most successful non-franchise, non-sequel films of the past decade.

And this is good news for what is now known as Amazon MGM Studios. The company’s film ambitions have evolved over time, from distributing smaller, critically acclaimed titles like “The Big Sick” and “Manchester by the Sea,” to recently acquiring film studio MGM (leading to a bid for control of the James Bond series) and declaring an intention to bring 14 films to theaters each year.

Until “Hail Mary,” such films, including “After the Hunt,” “Mercy,” and the controversial documentary “Melania,” didn’t seem to catch on with audiences.

Courtenay Valenti, head of Amazon’s film division, told the New York Times that the huge opening weekend of “Project Hail Mary” validated the company’s strategy to make “big, bold, interesting commercial films.” And more movies are set to hit theaters soon, including The Sheep Detectives starring Hugh Jackman in May and the Masters of the Universe reboot in June.