Amazon MGM Studios‘ Project Hail Mary had a blessed Saturday chalking up $27.1M, just -18% off Friday/preview’s $33.1M which rockets this Ryan Gosling starring, Lord & Miller directed production to a magnificent $80.6M. While that’s the second-best domestic start for a non-franchise movie after Oppenheimer ($82.4M), it’s the best opening for a non-franchise movie in March (ahead of Jordan Peele’s Us ($71M). Interesting enough, the trajectory for Project Hail Mary is very similar to Oppenheimer which posted Friday/previews of $33M but dipped -21% on Saturday with $26.2M. Oppenheimer‘s Sunday was $23.1M. If Project Hail Mary is north of that, it will be the best start for a non-franchise movie at the domestic B.O. Currently, the Amy Pascal, Rachel O’Connor, Andy Weir, Aditya Sood produced movie is eyeing $20.3M today.
Also, interesting to note that Oppenheimer was R whereas Project Hail Mary was PG-13. In pre-sales Project Hail Mary did look like Oppenheimer. But it wasn’t keen to call it as such. That’s because Oppenheimer was in rarefied air with the whole Barbenheimer of it all. Sans Barbie, it could be argued that Oppenheimer opens to $60M.
Project Hail Mary is also the best domestic opening ever for an Amazon MGM Studios movie, the best opening for Lord & Miller as directors (ahead of Lego Movie‘s $69M opening) and it’s Gosling’s second-best debut after Barbie ($162M).
Read more at Deadline
