‘Project Hail Mary’, ‘Hoppers’ & ‘GOAT’ Scale-Up Global Box Office

Animation and VFX-driven films have continued to keep the film industry in the green in recent weeks.

The Ryan Gosling-starrer ‘Project Hail Mary’ wrapped up its second weekend at the top position in the US with $54.06 million from 4,077 cinemas to rake in $163.8 million domestically, and a total of $300.8 million worldwide.

Based on the popular fiction of the same title by Andy Weir, ‘Project Hail Mary’ is now the highest-grossing Motion Picture Association (MPA) title and Amazon MGM’s top-grossing movie to date. Still, it is second to China’s feature film Pegasus 3, which is currently the most popular movie of the year globally with about $630.4 million in the bank.

Pixar’s Hopper holds the number 2 spot on the US domestic box office chart. The eco-friendly movie grossed $12.2 million in its first week of release, bringing its total to $138.6 million and $297.6 million worldwide in its seventh week after release.

Sony Pictures’ GOAT is pushing hard against its competition at the number 8 spot locally, hitting a domestic cumulative gain of $100.865 million, and $180.9 million worldwide post the seventh week of its release.

Meantime, all eyes are on Universal/Nintendo and Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy feature set to premiere on Wednesday, April 1.

Industry observers anticipate it will gross $175 million or more during its five-day Easter Season opening in the US and Canada, with the potential to gross $350 million worldwide.