Ryan Gosling's Project Hail Mary Is 94% on Rotten Tomatoes Nine Days Before Release — Critics Call It the First Great Movie of 2026
The hype is real and the reviews are backing it up. Project Hail Mary — Ryan Gosling's $150 million sci-fi epic from directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller — opens nationwide in theaters and IMAX on March 20, nine days from now. It currently holds a 94% score on Rotten Tomatoes from over 70 reviews, and the critical consensus is unusually uniform: Gosling is perfect, Rocky the alien is a practical effects miracle, and the film is one of the year's best.
What Project Hail Mary Is About: Memory Loss, an Alien Friend, and a Dying Sun
Science teacher Ryland Grace wakes up on a spaceship light years from home with no recollection of who he is or how he got there. As his memory returns, he begins to uncover his mission: solve the riddle of the mysterious substance causing the sun to die out. He must call on his scientific knowledge and unorthodox ideas to save everything on Earth from extinction — but an unexpected friendship means he may not have to do it alone.
Grace deduces he is the sole survivor of a crew sent to the Tau Ceti system — and learns his only companion is an alien he dubs Rocky, who has come on his own mission. Rocky is not CGI. He was built and designed by creature shop legend Neal Scanlan and performed on set by puppeteer James Ortiz and his team in every single scene. Gosling acted against a real creature, not a tennis ball on a stick — and that decision shows.
Project Hail Mary Cast and Production: Six Years in the Making
The film stars Ryan Gosling, Sandra Hüller, Lionel Boyce, Ken Leung, and Milana Vayntrub. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed from a screenplay by Drew Goddard — who previously adapted Weir's The Martian — with Greig Fraser as cinematographer and Daniel Pemberton scoring.
The $150 million production was shot entirely without green screens, using 2,018 VFX shots added in post-production to enhance physical environments rather than replace them. Every spaceship set was physically constructed. Principal photography began June 3, 2024, at Shepperton Studios in the United Kingdom and wrapped October 26 — a 102-day shoot.
Andy Weir himself has seen the film. "Ryan brings a lot of depth to the character that I never even thought of," Weir said. "It's like he's revealing what Grace was all along."
What Critics Are Saying: 94%, Four Stars, "Best Space Double-Act Since R2-D2 and C3-PO"
The reviews published after the London premiere on March 9 are striking in their consistency. USA Today called the film "the first great movie of 2026," praising its accessible science and Gosling as "a superb everyman." Empire gave it four stars, calling it "a very watchable old-school blockbuster crowd-pleaser" and comparing the Gosling-Rocky dynamic to R2-D2 and C-3PO. Deadline's Pete Hammond declared it "mission accomplished — an entertaining and engaging piece of science fiction."
IndieWire praised Gosling for going "full Martian," calling it "enormously entertaining and genuinely inspiring." The BBC gave it four stars despite its 2.5-hour runtime, noting it "manages to be zippily entertaining throughout." The lone significant outlier is The Guardian at three stars, arguing Gosling's charm carries an "unserious" story — though even that review concedes the watchability.
"Rocky is a practical effects wonder, standing tall with E.T. among alien friends," critic Joey Magidson wrote after an early screening. "Loved it so much."
Trailer, Box Office Projections, and IMAX Early Access
The first trailer released June 30, 2025, accumulated 400 million global views in its first week — the most-viewed trailer for any non-sequel or remake in history at that point.
Deadline projected a $45 to $55 million domestic opening weekend. The film is eyeing $50 million-plus off its $150 million production budget — a number that needs to climb significantly to turn a profit theatrically, but one that Amazon MGM's streaming ecosystem makes far less critical than it would be at a traditional studio.
Prime members can access a one-night-only early screening on March 16 at 7:00 PM in premium formats including IMAX, Dolby Cinema, 4DX, 70MM, and HDR by Barco. Select cities get a limited 70MM IMAX run beginning March 13. Nearly two hours of the film is presented in the full 1.43:1 IMAX aspect ratio — exclusive to IMAX screens.
Project Hail Mary opens nationwide Friday, March 20.
