Amazon MGM Studios' Project Hail Mary has muscled past one of Disney's most celebrated sci-fi animated films at the domestic box office. The Ryan Gosling-led space adventure, adapted from Andy Weir's fan favorite 2021 novel, is proving to be the studio's biggest theatrical bet of 2026, and it's paying off. The film's rapid climb up the charts has caught some moviegoers off guard, with a new achievement passing one of Disney's very best films.
Project Hail Mary has officially surpassed Disney and Pixar's 2004 sensation, The Incredibles, with $264.6 million at the domestic box office, a feat achieved less than a month after its wide release on March 20.
Over 20 years ago, The Incredibles brought the superhero and sci-fi genres to Pixar for the first (and definitive) time, earning $261.4 million domestically and an additional $370 million internationally for a grand worldwide total of $631.4 million.
Project Hail Mary, by comparison, is still early in its theatrical run and already nipping at those global numbers as well, projected to pass $700 million worldwide.
Domestically, The Incredibles still ranks among the top 10 highest-grossing Pixar films ever. Its eventual successor, Incredibles 2 in 2018, absolutely dwarfed it financially with a staggering $608.5 million domestic haul and still holds the record for the biggest opening weekend in Pixar history ($182.6 million).
Yet for all its box office dominance, the sequel has never quite captured the magic of the original. The Incredibles holds a 90 on Metacritic and a 97% critics' score on Rotten Tomatoes, tied for fourth among all Pixar films, and the overwhelming fan demand for a continuation speaks to just how deeply loved the first film remains. That enthusiasm now extends to Incredibles 3, currently expected to release on June 16, 2028.
The broader story here is also one of Pixar's evolving identity. Post-COVID, original Pixar films have struggled to replicate the cultural and commercial dominance of titles like The Incredibles.
The studio has leaned heavily on sequels as a result, though 2026's Hoppers has become one of the year's early hits, offering a hopeful sign that original Pixar stories can still find their audience.
As for Project Hail Mary, the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation is now projected to finish its domestic theatrical run around $310 million, and it has earned that goodwill the hard way at over two and a half hours; audiences aren't just showing up, they're staying.
Critics and general viewers alike have embraced it, and sequel talk is already swirling. The catch, of course, is that author Andy Weir would need to write a follow-up novel first. Given that the film takes some liberties with the ending of Weir's original story, the possibilities for where Grace and Rocky could go next feel genuinely wide open.
Riding high on the film's success are directors Phil Lord and Chris Miller, having recently unveiled new footage for Spider-Man: Beyond the Spider-Verse at CinemaCon 2026, set to release on June 18, 2027.
The Future of Pixar's Box Office
The success of Project Hail Mary arrives at a fascinating crossroads for Pixar. The studio that once turned any original concept into a cultural event has spent the post-COVID era grappling with a hard truth: audiences have fundamentally changed how they show up for their films.
When Elio posted the worst opening weekend in studio history last year, it was just another example of a troubling pattern. Original Pixar stories, particularly those leaning into sci-fi, have become the hardest sell in the marketplace. Meanwhile, Inside Out 2 made nearly $1.7 billion worldwide in 2024. The contrast is stark, and it isn't particularly close.
Pixar's path forward appears to be a careful balancing act. Sequels like Toy Story 5 and Incredibles 3 provide the financial stability to keep the studio operating at the highest level, while originals like Hoppers keep the creative pipeline alive. Without original films, after all, there's no next Toy Story to build a franchise around in the first place.
What Project Hail Mary proves, perhaps most interestingly, is that audiences still have an enormous appetite for ambitious, original science fiction. This idea can certainly be translated to kid-friendly animation, making families not to miss out on the new moment.
