'Project Hail Mary' Is Already Breaking Box Office Records

Just a few days after its wide release, Project Hail Mary is already on track to becoming one of this year's biggest box office success stories.

The film—which is based on Andy Weir's sci-fi novel of the same name—centers around a reluctant middle school teacher who finds himself hauled onto a spaceship and sent to the far reaches of the universe to look for a cure to a virus that's dimming the sun and threatening to extinct all life on Earth.

Project Hail Mary has already demonstrated a brilliant performance at the box office, turning over $140 million in its opening weekend and sitting comfortable at the top of this week's charts (via Radio Times)

This officially gives Project Hail Mary the highest opening weekend of any film so far this year, standing tall above Hoppers, "Wuthering Heights", and Scream 7. It has also landed Amazon's best opening weekend ever, overtaking the previous record held by Creed III.

Following the studio's acquisition of MGM in 2022, Amazon pledged to release more films in theaters before bringing them to Prime Video—and Project Hail Mary is clear evidence that this strategy is working.

The film is directed by filmmaking duo Phil Lord & Christopher Miller, who previously worked together on the 21 Jump Street and LEGO Batman franchises. They're also the producers behind the critically acclaimed Spider-Verse movies.

Before Project Hail Mary, it was Scream 7 that held the record for this year's strongest opening weekend—but its total was still less than half of what Ryan Gosling's blockbuster has just accomplished.

Since then, Scream 7 has pulled in $193.8 million in little over a month, so projections for Project Hail Mary could be much higher than anybody anticipated.