Project Hail Mary is rocketing into the stratosphere.
2026’s Project Hail Mary, which debuted in theaters on March 20, stars Ryan Gosling as Ryland Grace, a disgraced molecular biologist who is sent into space in a last-ditch effort to save humanity, where he teams up with an alien life form to try and learn why the sun is being devoured by an unknown substance. The movie, which recently had its theatrical run extended by Amazon MGM Studios, has broken numerous box office records, rocketing past the $550 million milestone worldwide while earning the best domestic debut of 2026 (at the time) and becoming the studio’s highest-grossing movie ever.
Per Deadline, as of Saturday morning, Project Hail Mary is projected to earn a 3-day total of $12.1 million by the end of its sixth weekend at the domestic box office, bringing its cumulative domestic gross to $304.3 million. While Project Hail Mary is technically not an “original” sci-fi movie, because it is based on the 2021 novel of the same name by Andy Weir, this total makes it only the fifth non-franchise, non-superhero sci-fi movie to pass the $300 million milestone in North America.
Overall, it is the 117th movie of any genre to do so. However, it is extraordinarily rare for non-franchise sci-fi to hit this big in domestic theaters. The Project Hail Mary movie now stands alongside some of the most iconic movies in the genre, including Steven Spielberg’s evergreen hit E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial and the zeitgeist-shaking George Lucas smash Star Wars: A New Hope, which redefined what it meant to be a blockbuster.
Below, see a breakdown of every non-franchise, non-superhero sci-fi movie to have surpassed the $300 million domestic milestone and their overall domestic rankings:
There are only a few edge cases of adventure movies with sci-fi elements that could also be potentially included on the chart, specifically Steven Spielberg’s 1993 smash hit *Jurassic Park *(No. 51 at $407.2 million domestic) and the 2012 dystopian young adult blockbuster *The Hunger Games *(#50 at $408 million). Should those be added, Project Hail Mary would be pushed to No. 7, still maintaining a strong position in the overall domestic Top 10 for non-franchise, non-superhero sci-fi.
It ultimately remains to be seen if Project Hail Mary will be able to climb much higher up the chart. While it is on track to surpass the all-time domestic total of Roland Emmerich’s *Independence Day *soon, most likely before the end of the week, doing so will put it in rarefied air. In order to climb any higher, it will have to pass the $400 million milestone and then some.
That might not be within its power, despite the fact that it has had consistently small week-on-week drops, with this weekend’s narrow 41% drop marking one of the biggest of its run. Regardless, the movie has already cemented itself as a smash hit, both critically and commercially.
In addition to ***Project Hail Mary ***reviews earning it a Certified Fresh 96% from critics and a Verified Hot 96% from audiences on Rotten Tomatoes, it has already more than justified its reported $200 million budget. While its huge price tag could have been a liability, as it places the movie’s estimated break-even point somewhere around $500 million, the movie has already surged past that total worldwide and shows no major signs of slowing down.
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Project Hail Mary ](/db/movie/project-hail-mary/)
Science Fiction
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Christopher Miller, Phil Lord