“Project Hail Mary” is bringing audiences to movie theaters in numbers the industry hasn’t seen for a non-franchise film since “Oppenheimer.” The science fiction epic starring Ryan Gosling earned around $80.5 million in ticket sales in its first weekend playing in North America, according to studio estimates Sunday. Box office tracker EntTelligence estimates that translates into about 5 million ticket buyers.
There are a couple of good surprises, one early-ish and one pretty late. (Trying to avoid spoilers here.)
The early-ish surprise (a character reveal) was a genuine jump-scare for me and I knew exactly what was about to happen. So pretty good.
The later surprise (a revelation about why someone is in their situation) is actually subtly foreshadowed better in the movie than it was in the book. A really great improvement.
I literally jumped at that first surprise. Well played …
And I agree that this was a superb adaptation.