Ryan Gosling is back in movie theaters with Project Hail Mary, which is shaping up to be the first genuinely big hit of the 2026 slate. It made over $140 million on opening weekend, the biggest debut of 2026 and the biggest non-franchise opening not called Oppenheimer.
It could be the first $1 billion hit this calendar year, and it’s a huge reason for moviegoers to get off the streaming sites and go to theaters. That has been a problem for movie studios for years. Theaters are slowing down as a result, and the industry has a precarious future.
But Gosling didn’t ask audiences to go out to the movies to help save the industry and keep theaters going. Instead, he placed the responsibility on himself and others working in the industry.
Ryan Gosling Says It’s on Them to Save Theaters, Not Fans
Many artists have spoken up recently about the slow decline of movie theaters and, as a result, the theater experience. Theaters are struggling, and streaming is taking over. Netflix’s near purchase of Warner Bros. brought that conversation to a head. Timothee Chalamet, in a perhaps callous way, talked about needing to revitalize theaters, too, recently.
Ryan Gosling is the latest to speak up, but he’s doing it while Project Hail Mary is taking off for the stars in terms of box office returns. He’s got a hit on his hands, and he believes it’s up to people to continue making hits, not that audiences need to keep showing up in general.
About the new film, he said via Variety, “Six years ago, I got the manuscript. [It’s] the most ambitious thing I’ll ever make; it seemed impossible. It was too good not to give it a shot. Six years later, we did it. Here we are, we’re all back in theaters. It’s not your job to keep them open, it’s our job to make things that make it worth you coming out.”
To Gosling’s credit, there is a lot of poorly-made work put out there in theaters. Scream 7 is a recent example, although the pull of a franchise that people love sparked box office interest despite a boycott and the fact that it’s utterly horrible. Still, a lot of movies don’t have the love and care put into them like Project Hail Mary.
But to play devil’s advocate, there are a lot of really good, excellent movies that go unnoticed in theaters. Project Hail Mary might get Ryan Gosling a $1 billion hit, but there are so many amazing films that don’t even come close to that number. Here are just a few examples from the last few years:
- The Life of Chuck, $19.7 million
- Hamnet, $102.2 million
- The Long Walk, $62.8 million
- Thunderbolts*, $382.4 million
- Furiosa, $174.3 million
- Challengers, $96.9 million
- Civil War, $127.2 million
Now, there’s an argument to be made that family films will always do better because they have a wider audience. No one’s taking their family to watch Challengers or The Long Walk, for example. But there are still misfires for those in terms of box office:
- The Wild Robot, $334.5 million
- Transformers One, $129.4 million
- Elio, $154.2 million
- The Bad Guys 2, $239.6 million
So perhaps it’s a little bit of both. To save theaters, people need to watch a wider variety of movies that aren’t just franchise and IP-based, although it’s worth noting that those things, like A Minecraft Movie, may be bad movies sometimes, but they’re a necessary evil to help the overall theater business.
To save theaters, movie studios and creatives also need to make better movies, which is what Ryan Gosling is getting at. Hopefully, that will start to happen, and people will start to go to more movies in general.
End Credits
Ryan Gosling, like most actors, wants to save movie theaters. He isn’t placing the responsibility on others, though. After the success of Project Hail Mary, the actor believes it’s up to him and others making movies to make it worth the audience’s while, so they do show up.
