‘Project Hail Mary’ becomes Amazon’s highest-grossing film debut

Project Hail Mary, from Amazon.com Inc.’s Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer studio, was the No. 1 film at the US and Canadian box office this weekend with $80.5 million worth of tickets, scoring the highest grossing debut of any movie this year.

The film’s performance in its opening weekend surpassed Creed III as the best for an Amazon title since the company acquired MGM for $8.5 billion in 2022. Industry tracker Boxoffice Pro had forecast sales of at least $70 million. More than a fifth of Project Hail Mary‘s box office came from Imax Corp. screens.

Since closing the MGM deal, which handed Amazon control of film franchises including James Bond and The Pink Panther, the e-commerce conglomerate has pledged to release more than a dozen pictures in cinemas annually before making them available on its Prime Video streaming service. 

Project Hail Mary, directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, is adapted from the novel of the same name by Andy Weir. It follows the adventure of biologist-turned-teacher-turned-astronaut Ryland Grace, played by Ryan Gosling, who wakes up with amnesia aboard a spacecraft.

The film achieved critical acclaim, and its commercial performance ends a string of low box-office hauls for Amazon this year on titles such as Mercy and Crime 101.

Amazon, which hired former Warner Bros. Discovery Inc. executives Courtenay Valenti and Sue Kroll to run its film studio and lead its marketing, is less dependent on the success of its theatrical releases than traditional Hollywood distributors. It uses cinemas primarily as a means to recoup some production and marketing costs before feeding the titles to its Prime user base, which is largely formed of online shoppers. 

Amazon’s commitment to theaters helps support chains such as AMC Entertainment Holdings Inc. and Regal Cineworld Group that are seeking more films from Hollywood. Last year, Amazon announced that it would be working with Denis Villeneuve, the director of the Dune trilogy, on a new Bond film. 

The domestic box office is up 15.2% so far this year compared with the same period in 2025 thanks to releases including Hoppers from Walt Disney Co.’s Pixar subsidiary and Scream 7 from Paramount Skydance Corp.’s film studio. 

Before Project Hail Mary, the best debut of 2026 was Scream 7. The movie, released in February, has since sold $193.8 million worth of cinema tickets, becoming the highest grossing picture in the horror franchise’s history. 

The debut of Hoppers earlier in March was also the best for an original Pixar film in a decade. 

Amazon’s next big-budget release in theaters this year is Masters of the Universe in June, based on the franchise controlled by toymaker Mattel Inc. 

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com