‘Hail Mary’ Eyes Epic Hold, ‘They Will Kill You’ Murdered

Project Hail Mary continues its out-of-this-world box office performance.

After earning $14.6 million on Friday, the Ryan Gosling-led movie adaptation of Andy Weir’s sci-fi epic is on course to decline a scant 34 percent to $53.1 million to boast the best hold in recent memory for movies that opened in the same range, including Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer (54 percent) and 2024’s Dune: Part 2 (44 percent).

That would put Project Hail Mary‘s worldwide cume well north of $200 million through Sunday, including an anticipated $137 million domestically and more than $100 million at the international box office.

Opening well ahead of expectations last weekend, the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller-directed Project Hail Mary blasted off with a domestic launch of $80.6 million, the best showing of the year to date and the second-best in a decade for a non-sequel or franchise title behind Oppenheimer ($52.5 million). Gosling’s top-grossing film of all time, of course, is Barbie, but Project Hail Mary is his biggest domestic opening featuring the actor in a leading role, not adjusted for inflation. It is also a domestic best for Lord and Miller.

Hail Mary is also performing ahead of expectations overseas, where sci-fi is a notoriously tough genre to sell in certain European countries, as well as key regions in Latin America and Asia. The film launched to $60.4 million from 80 markets at the foreign box office for a global launch of roughly $141 million, also the best start of 2026 so far for a Hollywood title.

And just as in the U.S., Project Hail Mary‘s wit and heartwarming undercurrents are leading to the sort of unanticipated, collective word-of-mouth that comes along once in a blue moon for theater owners and studios. On Friday, for example, the film grossed $11.7 million overseas, up four percent from the previous Friday despite adding more territories, for an international tally of $98.7 million in 86 markets.

The sci-fi epic stars Gosling as an ostracized biologist now teaching high school who is tapped by the head of an international consortium (Sandra Hüller) to help stop the sun from dimming and ushering in another ice age. Gosling’s character doesn’t remember any of this upon awaking to find himself alone on a ship hurtling through space. The rest of the crew has died, but he proceeds and discovers an alien life form that is trying to solve the same problem. The craggy-looking alien, who is given the nickname “Rocky,” learns how to use English as their means of communication and the two, working step by step, use their growing bond to solve the problem (the merchandising possibilities are tantalizing, to sau the least, should Hail Mary transform into a franchise).

Multiple sources say a franchise is a possibility. Weir has said he has ideas for a sequel to his best-selling novel, but to date, there are no official conversations between the author— who is in the driver’s seat in terms of all things related to Hail Mary — but insiders say a sequel is far from out of the question.

The movie arrives at a defining moment for Amazon MGM, which is on the verge of becoming a major Hollywood studio just as David Ellison‘s Skydance, which became the new owner of Paramount in August 2025, prepares to add Warner Bros. Discovery to the portfolio. While he says he will keep the two studios separate, no one is sure how that will work. By all accounts, a vertical merger of this size would be heavily scrutinized by Washington regulators, but President Donald Trump is close allies with Oracle founder and mega-billionaire Larry Ellison, David Ellison’s father. Trump has also praised the younger Ellison, and supported the Paramount-Skydance marriage after sweeping changes were at made at CBS News. Trump is widely expected to exact changes at CNN as well if Ellison succeeds in buying WBD, owner the cable channel.

Elsewhere, Hoppers is set to gross another $11 million-$12 million this weekend for a domestic tally of $137.3 million as it continues to redeem Pixar’s ability to turn out original fare (Elio‘s entire domestic cume was $72.9 million).

Duking it out for third place are They Will Kill You and two holdovers: Dhurandhar: The Revenge, the latest installment in the Indian action-thriller starring Ranveer Singh; and Universal’s movie adaptation of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him.

The Warners-owned New Line and Skydance’s genre label partnered on They Will Kill You long before talks of a merger. The new action-horror-comedy follows Satan-worshipping tenants living in a luxury New York City building who perform ritualistic killings their mostly poor and marginalized staff. Filmmaker Kirill Sokolov (Why Don’t You Just Die!) directed from a script he co-wrote with Alex Litvak. The film has decent 79 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, while the 65 percent critics’ score is also in the fresh zone (The critics’ score has been fluctuating, and was in the low 70s several days ago). While solid, PostTrak exits aren’t spectacular either.

Another problem for They Will Kill You: Searchlight Pictures’ horror-comedy Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is only in its second weekend after opening to a somewhat better $9.1 million domestically.