Project Hail Mary rockets to year’s highest-grossing film debut with $103m in box office

Before Project Hail Mary, the best debut of 2026 was Scream 7. Read more at straitstimes.com.

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 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.