The cosmos welcomes a new star. After blasting off to a record-breaking opening, Project Hail Mary is maintaining its out-of-this-world momentum with a US$300 million haul at the global box office. This puts it as the year’s top-grossing title to date and the biggest showing for Amazon MGM since the studio’s 2022 merger, surpassing the US$276 million earned by Creed III in its entire run.
In its second week of release, the Ryan Gosling-fronted film collected US$54.1 million worldwide, with another US$54.5 million coming from North America, marking a scant 32 percent drop from its debut weekend. IMAX also played a major role in its success, contributing 20 percent of its domestic total (US$33 million) and raking in US$59.6 million globally. According to The Hollywood Reporter, there’s talk of a potential sequel, but nothing is set in stone just yet.
Project Hail Mary now stands as Gosling’s biggest opening in a leading role —Barbie is his top-grossing film of all time — and a domestic best for directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, as well as one of the most successful non-franchise, non-sequel movies of the past decade. Adapted from Andy Weir’s novel of the same name, it stars the La La Land actor as an ostracised biologist-turned-high-school-teacher tapped to stop the sun from dimming and usher in another ice age, joined by Sandra Hüller (Anatomy of a Fall), James Ortiz (The Woodsman), and Lionel Boyce (The Bear) in the cast.
In second place is Disney’s Pixar adventure Hoppers, holding onto its position from the previous week with an additional US$24.8 million overseas for a global total of US$297 million. The only major new release for the weekend, They Will Kill You, ranks at No.3, with Bollywood thriller Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge and Reminders of Him rounding out the top five.
When April rolls around, Project Hail Mary will likely find itself in the company of another blockbuster: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, the sequel to 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Alongside returning characters such as Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Bowser, fans can also expect appearances from Yoshi, Rosalina, Bowser Jr., and Fox McCloud, the anthropomorphic fox that leads Nintendo’s Star Fox series, voiced by none other than Glen Powell.
Si Jia is a casual geek at heart – or as casual as someone with Sephiroth’s theme on her Spotify playlist can get. A fan of movies, games, and Japanese culture, Si Jia’s greatest weakness is the Steam Summer Sale. Or any Steam sale, really.
Kevin Low
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