“Project Hail Mary” easily topped the box office for the second consecutive weekend, bringing in a heavenly $54.5 million. There have been hits in 2026, such as “Scream 7” and “Hoppers,” but “Project Hail Mary” is shaping up to be the year’s first true blockbuster, having already earned $164.3 million domestically.
“Project Hail Mary” only dropped 32% from its debut weekend, signaling the film will have staying power. Its impressive results are welcome news for Amazon MGM, which is investing heavily in theatrical movies by committing to releasing roughly a dozen films in cinemas annually. The move comes after Amazon MGM struggled to define its moviemaking ambitions, first focusing on indie productions, then pivoting to streaming premieres before more recently opting to back populist fare geared for the big screen.
“Project Hail Mary” also confirms Ryan Gosling‘s box office bona fides. The Oscar-nominated “Barbie” and “La La Land” star is front-and-center in the movie as a school teacher on a desperate mission to save the planet. The film rises or falls on Gosling’s lead performance and he’s being rewarded with one of the biggest hits of his career, as well as some early awards chatter. Then there’s Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, who recovered from being fired from “Solo: A Star Wars Story” to deliver a crowd-pleaser that proves they can handle live-action space epics quite nicely, thank you very much. To say nothing of Andy Weir, the writer behind “Project Hail Mary” and “The Martian,” whose books have now inspired two box office winners. His next novel is almost certain to spark a bidding war for the movie rights.
The weekend’s only major new release, “They Will Kill You,” was D.O.A., earning an anemic $5 million domestically from 2,778 locations for a third-place finish. The Warner Bros. and New Line release only cost $20 million to produce, but it’s still a dreadful result because studios have to split ticket sales with theater owners. Michael De Luca and Pam Abdy helped put “Project Hail Mary” in motion when they ran MGM. Having left the studio to lead Warner Bros., they enjoyed a hot streak at the box office last year, with the likes of “Sinners,” “A Minecraft Movie” and “Weapons” scoring commercially. But 2026 is off to a rough start for De Luca and Abdy. “They Will Kill You” arrives just a few weeks after “The Bride,” the studio’s $90 million steampunk reimagining of “The Bride of Frankenstein,” bombed, earning a disastrous $23.2 million globally.
“They Will Kill You” stars Zazie Beetz as a housekeeper hired to clean a high-rise apartment with a history of mysterious disappearances. Patricia Arquette, Heather Graham, Tom Felton and Myha’la co-star in the film, which was directed and co-written by Kirill Sokolov. Nocturna Pictures, the genre label backed by David Ellison’s Skydance and “It” filmmakers Andy and Barbara Muschietti, co-financed the picture. Ellison has a deal in place to buy Warner Bros. and merge it with Paramount, which he bought last year. For Warner executives, it helps that their potential new boss is partially responsible for their latest flop. Plus, “They Will Kill You” isn’t the only recent horror film to struggle to draw crowds. “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come” cratered in its second weekend of release, earning $4 million to push the Searchlight Pictures production to a measly $16.3 million domestically.
Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers” captured second place for the weekend, taking in another $12.2 million. Through its first four weeks of release, the family film is projected to gross $138.6 million in North America and $297.6 million worldwide. “Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge,” a Bollywood thriller, came in fourth with $4.7 million, pushing its domestic total to a muscular $22.8 million and nearly outpacing “They Will Kill You” despite the fact that it was showing on almost 2,000 fewer screens.
Rounding out the Friday top five was “Reminders of Him” with $4.7 million domestically, bringing its gross to $41.1 million. Universal produced the adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s romantic novel to the tune of $25 million.
In limited release, Focus Features premiered “The AI Doc: Or How I Became an Apocaloptimist,” a look at the risks and potential of artificial intelligence from the filmmakers behind “Navalny” and “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It grossed $650,000 in 786 locations. Neon also debuted “Alpha,” a body horror film from “Titane’s” Julia Ducournau that earned just over $121,000 from 218 screens.
Universal also revived 2001’s “The Mummy Returns.” The adventure film grossed $600,000 from 1,300 venues, pushing its total to $202.7 million. The studio is rebooting the franchise and enlisting original stars Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz for a new sequel.
“Project Hail Mary” should soon have company in the blockbuster club. Next weekend brings “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Universal and Illumination’s latest collaboration with Nintendo, which is expected to be one of 2026’s biggest hits. For exhibitors, it will extend a strong start to the year, with ticket sales already up more than 25%.
Source: variety.com
