Even with the talent involved and the DNA it shares with a past sci-fi hit, the successful $80.5 million domestic, $140 million global opening weekend of Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” was far from a sure thing.
We’ve seen sci-fi films like “Blade Runner 2049” and “The Creator” fall by the wayside even when critical reception is strong, as it was for “Project Hail Mary” in the weeks leading up to its release. For every sci-fi movie that hits, there are just as many that fumble.
This one had a head start given that Andy Weir’s novel was a runaway succeess, and Amazon MGM was betting that this film could perform similarly to the 2015 Weir adaptation “The Martian.” But many pieces would have to be put in place in order for “Project Hail Mary” to build the audience it needs to turn a profit against its $200 million budget.
Mission accomplished.
What was expected to be a solid but not spectacular opening in the $60 million range – which would require long legs in the subsequent weeks for true theatrical success — has become the second-highest non-franchise film opening of the past decade, behind only the $82 million opening of “Oppenheimer.” Even with “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” coming on Easter weekend, “Project Hail Mary” has the momentum it needs to be the spring blockbuster theaters need to sustain the box office every March.
Here’s how this sci-fi adventure got here.
Early access screenings
After getting rave reviews from critics’ screenings, Amazon MGM partnered with Imax and Fandango to hold early access screenings for audiences in select theaters in 18 cities in the U.S. and Canada that had 70mm and Imax 70mm capability. In doing so, Amazon MGM not only built up strong word-of-mouth that got the Rotten Tomatoes audience score up to 96% before Thursday previews even began, but also created a desire to see the film in premium formats.
“I had theaters calling and asking for more of these early screenings, but I really thought it was important to have a bit of exclusivity to them. I think in this day and age we are used to just having whatever we want available to watch right away, but there’s value in building anticipation,” Amazon MGM distribution chief Kevin Wilson told TheWrap. “I think we got just enough people for there to be significant audience buzz before we went wide on Thursday night, but not so many that we diluted that core audience that really got onboard and wanted to see this film on the biggest screen they could.”
And by focusing the early access screenings on Imax 70mm, Amazon MGM helped nudge the buzz surrounding “Project Hail Mary” towards the sort of sentiment seen in social media posts like one from YouTuber ManaByte: a movie that “you’ll wish you saw in a theater.”
One viral tweet compared an Imax 70mm shot of the film to one on standard screens, and soon much of the conversation over the weekend was about not just seeing the film in theaters, but paying extra to see the film in Imax, which accounted for an MGM record $27.6 million, or roughly 20%, of the film’s global opening.
Paul Dergarabedian, senior analyst at Comscore, also noted that picking a late March release slot was essential to maximizing audience attention for “Project Hail Mary.” Rather than slot the film in a midsummer release date like the one Amazon MGM has given to its franchise tentpole “Masters of the Universe,” they smartly chose to put the film in a spring period where it could be the big fish in a small pond.
“They also could have put the film as a counterprogramming title to ‘Michael’ and ‘Devil Wears Prada 2’ to kick off the summer, but they got ahead of all the big spring and early summer titles, including ‘Mario,” he said.
Event film marketing
“Project Hail Mary” doesn’t have a lot in common with Denis Villeneuve’s “Dune” films, but they have one common thread that has led to their mutual box office success: many of the shots from the film chosen for the marketing campaign were designed to inspire awe in the audience.
Whether in theatrical trailers or at home, all of the marketing for “Project Hail Mary” focused on shots of lead star Ryan Gosling taking space walks through colorful nebulas and around far away planets, as well as shots of his spacecraft floating alongside the strange alien structure of his unlikely crab-like best friend, Rocky.
Just like how Warner Bros. sold “Dune” with shots of Timothee Chalamet, Zendaya and Jason Momoa running through deserts filled with giant ships and sandworms, Amazon chose shots from “Project Hail Mary” that would make it clear, even when seen on a smartphone, that this was a film that demanded a movie ticket to get maximum enjoyment (not for nothing: The “Dune” films and “Project Hail Mary” were shot by cinematographer Greig Fraser).
And then that message was sent through Amazon’s massive multimedia platform, running ads on Prime’s NBA games, Twitch streams, and in front of hundreds of millions of online shoppers. It’s the sort of cross-platform marketing that made Amazon’s entry into theatrical so encouraging for theater owners, and after the bumpy start with poor openings for “Mercy” and “Crime 101,” we are finally seeing it in action.
A filmmaking team fit for the stars
Let’s save the biggest and most obvious ingredient of the formula for last: Amazon can’t sell this film if it doesn’t have the goods, and “Project Hail Mary” is proving to be a career-high for directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, lead star Ryan Gosling and the team of creatives who helped make this happen.
While Lord and Miller have steadily made a name for themselves in animation as the directors of “Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs” and “The Lego Movie” and writers/producers of Sony’s “Spider-Verse” trilogy, “Project Hail Mary” is their first live-action film since “22 Jump Street” in 2014. The duo signed on for the “Star Wars” origin story film “Solo” in 2018 but were fired during filming due to creative differences.
But with this project, they’ve shown Hollywood what they can do with their largest production budget yet, assembling a team of top creatives to create a deep space adventure that pays homage to those of cinema’s past.
The breathtaking shots that made the film so marketable came from Oscar-winning DP Greig Fraser. Another Oscar winner, special effects and creature designer Neal Scanlan, led the creation of the endearing Rocky, brought to life with the help of five puppeteers, James Ortiz’s voice acting,and CGI work to augment his movements, all combined with an alien language created by “A Quiet Place” sound designer Erik Aadahl.
And at the center of it all is Ryan Gosling, turning in the latest performance in a career that has been thoroughly acclaimed but has had its ups and downs at the box office. While he has had hits like the Best Picture-nominated “La La Land” and “Barbie,” he’s also had films like “The Nice Guys,” “Blade Runner 2049,” and most recently, “The Fall Guy” which have failed to launch at the box office despite strong reviews and, in the case of “The Nice Guys,” a cult following.
But “Project Hail Mary” marks a new high in his career. Depending on whether you consider his role as Ken in “Barbie” a supporting role or a lead performance, this is his biggest opening weekend by far as a leading actor, dwarfing the $32.7 million opening of “Blade Runner 2049.”
And unlike any of his top films where he shared top billing with the likes of Emma Stone and Margot Robbie, Gosling was the sole actor on the posters for “Project Hail Mary.” Both the story and the promotion of this film were entrusted to him, and as a result, much of the glowing audience praise for the movie has been directed to his work.
“Gosling has this old school, positive movie star charm about him, and you see it when he goes on talk shows and ‘SNL,” Dergarabedian said. “That really made him a perfect fit for this movie.”
At a time when Hollywood is desperately trying to revive the very concept of star power at the movies after replacing it with franchise recognition as the engine driving the industry, Gosling has added a little bit more fuel to the fire ignited by lead performances from actors like Michael B. Jordan in “Sinners” and Timothee Chalamet in “Marty Supreme.”
“This weekend leaves no doubt that Ryan Gosling is a singular star that has the massive global appeal and charisma to anchor a story like this,” said Wilson.
