‘Project Hail Mary’ Overtakes Landmark Sci-Fi Film with Shared Origin

From the moment Project Hail Mary’s Ryland Grace (Ryan Gosling) and his alien partner in saving the stars, Rocky, were seen together on screen, it was love at first sight for audiences. After its March 20 release, Project Hail Mary became a cultural sensation overnight. The film, adapted from Andy Weir’s acclaimed novel of the same name, is already one of the most unanimously beloved movies of the last several years. The film currently holds an average score of 95% between critics and audiences on Rotten Tomatoes and an astounding 4.3/5 on Letterboxd.

Merchandising for the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller-directed space epic has been a phenomenon. Items like limited-edition popcorn buckets, clothing, and accessories featuring now-iconic quotes such as “Rocky and Grace save the stars” and “Amaze! Amaze! Amaze!” have been in high demand. The holy grail for fans is limited-edition 70mm IMAX collectible film strips, which very controversially went on sale March 30 and sold out instantly. Due to demand and fans upset about missing out, the film strips were restocked Tuesday. They sold out instantly once again. They are $35 a piece, plus tax and shipping.

I refreshed for like 2 minutes and never saw it get back in stock lmao it must've sold out again in like 10 seconds https://t.co/kEdBExLg1S

— kili ????️???? (@kili_boyy) April 7, 2026

Great reviews and merchandise sales are just complementary to a studio like Amazon MGM Studios, which produced Project Hail Mary. What really matters is “how much money was made at the box office?” The Gosling-led hit movie has passed with flying colors and just surpassed another adored space film from the same author.

As of Friday, Project Hail Mary has grossed $229 million domestically, moving above Ridley Scott’s The Martian, starring Matt Damon. Both novels were written by Andy Weir, but The Martian being his first, that movie is in a way like Project Hail Mary’s older brother. The film still in theaters has become taller than its older brother. Sort of.

Combining domestic and global totals, The Martian still has Project Hail Mary’s total beat ($630 million vs. $433 million), but the Hail Mary still has quite a distance left in its theatrical journey. With each weekend-to-weekend drop-off smaller than usual for theatrically released movies, the film is projected to land at a $600 million to $700 million total.

It will most likely end up passing The Martian’s box office total.

Project Hail Mary will end as Ryan Gosling’s highest-grossing film of his career at the box office, outside of Barbie.

This is Lord and Miller’s first live-action movie since being let go from Solo: A Star Wars Story in June 2017 due to creative differences. To say it has been a success would be an understatement.