After its first evening at the box office, Project Hail Mary isn’t looking like a Hail Mary at all. It’s looking like a sure thing. The Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi film, directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, earned $12 million in previews over the past few days, making it the highest-grossing preview total of 2026 by far as well as one of the highest-grossing ever for a non-franchise film.
The $12 million in previews (which basically includes all public screenings before the official opening day of March 20) beats Scream 7′s $7.8 million in previews earlier this month, which was previously the best of the year so far. That went on to make about $64 million over its first weekend, which is well ahead of Project Hail Mary‘s early estimates. A very good sign.
The $12 million is also the second best ever for a “non-sequel, non-franchise,” according to Deadline. That record still belongs to the first It film, which grossed $13.5 million in previews. Like Project Hail Mary, It was also based on a popular book. And, since that opening, It went on to become its own franchise. We’ll see if that happens for the Andy Weir adaptation.
Compared to other well-known non-sequel, non-franchise openings, the $12 million puts Project Hail Mary ahead of Best Picture winner Oppenheimer, which did $10.5 million in previews, as well as last year’s Best Picture nominee F1, which did $10 million. Of course, it pales in comparison to those sequel or franchise numbers. Avengers: Endgame, the biggest opening of all time, did $60 million in previews, for example.
But that’s not a fair comparison for obvious reasons. The $12 million is an excellent number that is sure to set Project Hail Mary up for probably two straight weeks of box office domination. At least until that pesky plumber comes to theaters on April 1.
Directed by Phil Lord and Chris Miller, based on an Andy Weir novel adapted by Drew Goddard, and starring Ryan Gosling, Project Hail Mary is now in theaters. We highly recommend you check it out.
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