'Project Hail Mary' blasts off with $80.5 million

"Project Hail Mary" is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.”

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The science fiction epic starring Ryan Gosling earned around $80.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend playing in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that translates into about 5 million ticket buyers.

The PG-13-rated film opened on 4,007 screens and easily topped the domestic box office charts, surpassing expectations to become the year's biggest and deliver a record opening for studio Amazon MGM, whose previous best was “Creed III” ($58 million in 2023). Not accounting for inflation, “Project Hail Mary” also scored the second biggest opening for a non-franchise movie behind only “Oppenheimer,” which opened to $82.4 million in 2023.