Sometimes it’s good to admit when you’re wrong, and in the case of Project Hail Mary’s box office prospects, I was way off base in my predictions from earlier this week. According to Deadline, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s adaptation of Andy Weir’s follow-up to The Martian is looking at an opening weekend north of $75 million, with $77 million in the cards. That’s nearly twice the $40 million I predicted, with audiences granting the film a solid A CinemaScore rating, putting it in Sinners territory.
Its success is a major win for Amazon/MGM, who spent north of $200 million to bring this sci-fi epic to the big screen. They went all out on making it a theatrical event, with an IMAX/70mm release—something that tends to pay off for event movies, as it signals to potential moviegoers that this is an experience that can’t easily be replicated at home. Notably, it’s one of only two non-franchise/sequel movies to open north of $60 million in the last decade (a depressing stat), with the other two being Jordan Peele’s Us and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer. While the budget is high on this one, it has another weekend coming up more or less all to itself before the Super Mario sequel opens over Easter (read our review HERE).
Meanwhile, the weekend’s other big release, the sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, is looking at a more modest $10 million opening in fourth place. That’s actually $2 million higher than the first film, although the budget is bigger this time around. It’s being overrun by another new release, the much-anticipated Hindi action sequel Dhurandhar: The Revenge, which looks like it will make over $12 million this weekend. Second place should, as expected, go to Hopperswith $21 million, which is an excellent hold as the Pixar movie is showing some serious legs.
What are you seeing this weekend? Let us know in the comments.
Subscribe to our weekly newsletter