Project Hail Mary is doing so well at the global box office that there’s talk of turning it into a franchise with a sequel.
The Ryan Gosling-fronted adaptation of the novel of the same name launched big at the global box office, bringing in an impressive $140 million during its opening weekend. It earned $80,583,746 domestically and $60.4 million internationally, for an impressive $140,983,746 global total. Project Hail Mary is only the third non-sequel or non-franchise movie to open above $50 million internationally in the post-COVID era (since 2020), sitting alongside Oppenheimer and F1: The Movie. On a like-for-like basis excluding China, Project Hail Mary's opening weekend was on par with Interstellar and Dune. It also secured the biggest global debut of 2026 so far, beating Scream 7’s $97 million opening weekend.
$27.6 million of the total opening weekend box office came from IMAX, showing the demand to watch the Phil Lord and Christopher Miller-directed sci-fi epic on enormous screens. Indeed, IMAX made up 20.3% of the domestic total, making it just the third film in IMAX history to index over 20% with an overall opening greater than $80 million.
Project Hail Mary is comfortably Amazon MGM Studios' highest-grossing film debut, surpassing Creed III (Amazon’s next big-budget release in theaters this year is Masters of the Universe in June). According to Variety, Project Hail Mary carried a $200 million budget, so it still has some way to go before it moves into profit during its theatrical run. But based on this start, it has a decent chance of doing so.
So, perhaps it should come as little surprise to hear that Hollywood is already thinking about Project Hail Mary 2. According to a report from The Hollywood Reporter, there are currently no official talks between author Andy Weir and Amazon MGM Studios, but “a sequel isn’t out of the question.” THR highlights the merchandise opportunity presented by the adorable alien, Rocky.
While there are no official conversations underway between Weir and Amazon MGM, insiders confirm a sequel isn’t out of the question. (The merchandising potential of Rocky, played by James Ortiz, is substantial.) Weir, who also wrote The Martian, is said to be “in the driver’s seat,” which suggests he’d have to write a Project Hail Mary follow-up for further adaptations to take place.
Is this likely? In a recent interview with The New York Times, Weir was asked if he would ever do a sequel in some way. He replied: “Absolutely, I have ideas for sequels for Project Hail Mary, but I just don’t have a good enough one yet. My next book, the one I’m working on now, is not a sequel to anything that I’ve written.”
So, don’t hold your breath for Project Hail Mary 2. But it does sound possible… eventually. After all, when Hollywood has a hit on its hands, more often than not, we get more of it.
IGN’s Project Hail Mary review returned an 8/10. We said: “Project Hail Mary is a rollicking sci-fi blockbuster celebrating how much we can accomplish when we work together… and how much meet-cute mileage you can get out of watching Ryan Gosling befriend a rock alien for two and a half hours.”
If you're curious to check out the source material, look no further than the iupcoming Deluxe Edition. It's available to preorder for $37.28 from Amazon now (down from $40), and releases on December 1 of this year. Otherwise, the standard paperback is also included in Amazon's latest 3 for 2 sale.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
