"Project Hail Mary" Tops Box Office, Becoming Amazon MGM’s Highest-Grossing Film
Amazon’s bet on the sci-fi blockbuster "Project Hail Mary" has paid off handsomely, recently surpassing "Creed III" to become the company's highest-grossing film in history. The film reportedly cost around $200 million to produce, a high figure for any movie, especially one that isn't a sequel or part of an existing franchise.
The film is based on the bestselling sci-fi novel of the same name by Andy Weir, who previously achieved a successful film adaptation with "The Martian" a decade ago. "Project Hail Mary" also took a non-traditional approach to its creation: for a significant portion of the film, Ryan Gosling is almost the only human actor on screen, playing a scientist who collaborates with a rocky, alien lifeform to solve a mystery related to the fate of the universe – why multiple stars, including the sun, are experiencing abnormal dimming.
In terms of box office performance, "Project Hail Mary" has grossed an estimated $164.3 million in North America in just 10 days, and $136.2 million in overseas markets. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film’s North American box office dropped only 32% in its second weekend, earning around $54.5 million, suggesting its final box office total could climb further before the end of its theatrical run.
With this momentum, "Project Hail Mary" has temporarily secured the position of "highest-grossing film of 2024 to date" and has joined the ranks of the most successful "non-sequel, non-franchise" films in nearly a decade. This success is a significant boost for the film business, which recently completed its integration and has been rebranded as Amazon MGM Studios.
Amazon’s film landscape has undergone a significant transformation in recent years: from initially distributing smaller, critically acclaimed films like "The Big Sick" and "Manchester by the Sea," to completing an $8.5 billion acquisition of traditional studio MGM, triggering a battle for control of the James Bond franchise, and then publicly announcing that it would release 14 films theatrically each year, Amazon is trying to move from a streaming platform to a more complete film industry chain.
However, before "Project Hail Mary," this ambition had not been fully validated at the box office. Several films, including "After the Hunt," "Mercy," and the controversial documentary "Melania," performed poorly in the market and failed to support its "theater-first" strategic narrative.
Amazon will continue to ramp up theatrical releases: in May, it will release "The Sheep Detectives" starring Hugh Jackman, and in June, it plans to release a reboot of "Masters of the Universe" to continue its offensive on the big screen.