Project Hail Mary rockets to 2026’s highest-grossing film debut with $103 million at box office

LOS ANGELES – Project Hail Mary, from Amazon’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) studio, was the No. 1 film at the American and Canadian box office over the weekend with US$80.5 million (S$103 million) worth of tickets, scoring the highest-grossing debut of any movie in 2026.

The film’s performance in its opening weekend surpassed that of Creed III (2023) as the best for an Amazon title since the company acquired MGM for US$8.5 billion in 2022. Industry tracker Boxoffice Pro had forecast sales of at least US$70 million.

More than a fifth of Project Hail Mary‘s box office came from Imax screens.

Since closing the MGM deal, which handed Amazon control of film franchises including James Bond and The Pink Panther, the e-commerce conglomerate has pledged to release more than a dozen pictures in cinemas annually before making them available on its Prime Video streaming service.

Project Hail Mary, directed by American film-making duo Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is adapted from the novel of the same name by American author Andy Weir. It follows the adventure of biologist-turned-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace, played by Canadian actor Ryan Gosling, who wakes up with amnesia aboard a spacecraft.

The film achieved critical acclaim, and its commercial performance ends a string of low box-office hauls for Amazon in 2026 on titles such as Mercy and Crime 101.

Amazon, which hired former Warner Bros. Discovery executives Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll to run its film studio and lead its marketing, is less dependent on the success of its theatrical releases than traditional Hollywood distributors.

It uses cinemas primarily as a means to recoup some production and marketing costs before feeding the titles to its Prime user base, which is largely formed of online shoppers.

Amazon’s commitment to theatres helps support chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings and Regal Cineworld Group that are seeking more films from Hollywood. In 2025, Amazon announced that it would be working with Denis Villeneuve, director of the Dune trilogy (2021 to present), on a new Bond film.

The North American box office is up 15.2 per cent so far in 2026 compared with the same period in 2025, thanks to releases including Hoppers from Walt Disney’s Pixar subsidiary and Scream 7 from Paramount Skydance’s film studio.

Before Project Hail Mary, the best debut of 2026 was Scream 7. The movie, released in February, has since sold US$193.8 million worth of cinema tickets, becoming the highest-grossing picture in the horror franchise’s history.

The debut of Hoppers earlier in March was also the best for an original Pixar film in a decade. 

Amazon’s next big-budget release in cinemas in 2026 is Masters Of The Universe in June, based on the franchise controlled by toy maker Mattel. BLOOMBERG