Project Hail Mary Blasted Off On Opening Night (And Christopher Nolan Better Watch Out)

It’s rare when a non-franchise movie is poised to not just win a box office weekend, but potentially become a smash hit that could become one of the highest-grossing movies of the year. And yet, we may be about to see just that as Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary has reportedly put together a preview night box office gross on par with the likes of Christopher Nolan.

Project Hail Mary Outperformed Oppenheimer In Early Box Office Previews

According to Deadline, Project Hail Mary had a fantastic start to its box office run last night as the movie put up receipts somewhere in the neighborhood of $11 million. This is a notable number that puts it slightly ahead of Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer, which scored $10.5 million, and F1, which came in at $10 million. It’s well ahead of Sinners, which was last year’s highest-grossing original at the domestic box office, which brought in $4.7 million in previews.

Oppenheimer would go on to gross nearly $1 billion at the global box office, and it would do so with very stiff competition in the form of Barbie, which would break the billion-dollar mark. Project Hail Mary won’t see that kind of competition. The only other major studio release this weekend is Searchlight’s Ready or Not 2: Here I Come, which is looking to do about $11 million total in domestic business on opening weekend. Project Hail Mary is expected to see an opening of around $60 million domestically and $100 million globally.

Can Project Hail Mary Break Oppenheimer's Opening Weekend Record Too?

Oppenheimer currently holds the record for the highest-grossing opening weekend of a non-franchise film, at just over $82 million. While the record seems secure based on projections, Project Hail Mary’s Thursday night numbers are a bit higher than had been projected, so it’s possible the film could outperform expectations. Becoming the highest-grossing non-franchise movie ever would be a tall order, but it doesn’t appear impossible.

There is another key area where Hail Mary is outperforming Oppenheimer, and that’s word of mouth. While both movies have Rotten Tomatoes scores with critics and fans that are in the 90% range, Project Hail Mary is actually slightly ahead of Oppenheimer on both counts. If a strong critical response to Project Hail Mary or positive word of mouth compels people to the theater, especially to see the movie in more expensive large formats like IMAX, we could see a big opening weekend here.

Of course, the difference between a movie making money and making a lot of money is about the movie’s success over multiple weeks. The real question is whether Project Hail Mary will have the legs to put up great box office numbers for weeks to come.