Ryan Gosling & Co. have given Amazon/MGM its best opening weekend ever, as “Project Hail Mary” is already a blockbuster. It did $12 million Thursday night and added another $19 Friday for a sizzling $33 million “opening day.” That put it on track to an $80.5 million weekend, the best of 2026 so far.
It’s been hyped to the heavens, reviews have been more appreciative than enthusiastic and apparently the public is in the mood for a cute, quasi-hopeful bit of sci-fi starring one of the most popular and accomplished leading men of his era.
I found it a real teeth-grinder, two and a half hours of “cutesie” masquerading as an essay on loneliness and sloppy, fantasy “science. But that’s just me. Still, note that the gap between Metacritic and the less experienced, studio-cheerleading RT review crew is rather pronounced on this one.
On the subject of the weekend’s other wide opening, “Ready of Not 2: Here I Come,” that review consensus gap is a chasm. A modest budget-to-box-office ratio “hit” of 2019 ($28 million, all in) would hardly seem like a sure box office thing. But here it is, a repetitive sequel that Searchlight wishfully put out to indifferent reviews (like mine), a middling opening day a $9.1 million opening weekend.
Considering the original earned $8 million pre-Trumpflation, that’s not “progress” or any sort of sign of pent-up demand. Still, Samara Weaving returns to her most successful role and Sarah Michelle Gellar is here for the Gen X fans. That’s $10 million is only good enough for fourth place.
“Hoppers” fell off more than expected ($21 million was the projection) but managed an $18 million weekend, climbing over $120 million, all-in by midnight Sunday. That’s good enough for second place, with families starved for fresher animated fare than “Zootopia 2” and “GOAT,” winding up their runs.
An Indian action sequel, “Dhurandhar: The Revenge,” cleared $9.4 and kept”Ready or Not 2″ in fourth place. It did almost $4 million Thursday night.
“Reminders of Him” did $8 million for fifth.
“Scream 7” ($4.3), “GOAT” ($3.5), “Undertone”($3), while “Wuthering Heights,” “Avatar: Fire & Ash,” “The Bride!” and “I Can Only Imagine 2” picked up the less than $500k scraps to prove there’s no bragging rights for coming in tenth this weekend.
