I waited until the end of the day to post this because I wanted Project Hail Mary’s initial Rotten Tomatoes reviews to settle a bit. When the embargo broke, dozens of critics loaded lavish praise on Ryan Gosling’s upcoming film. It debuted on the site with an excellent 95% approval rating.
Surely, I thought, that will go down once more patient voices weigh in.
Funny thing… At the end of my day, it actually went up a point.
But wait, you say. Rotten Tomatoes is filled with non-serious people.
Okay, let’s jump over to Metacritic, which is widely seen as more… discerning.
How does that 80 rank against this year’s Oscar contenders? It’s definitely lower than Sinners (84) and One Battle After Another (95) or even Hamnet (84). Of course, the Metacritic score could change vastly as we approach the film’s March 20 release date when all critics weigh in. But we can all agree, this is a great start for the film. It’s not entirely surprising considering many online sites have long gossiped that early test audience scores have been outstanding.
Strangely enough, some of the bigger mentions on X about the film show a more mixed story. Or maybe that’s just Owen Gleiberman.
Ryan Gosling’s #ProjectHailMary wants to be “Interstellar” meets “E.T.,” but it’s too long and too cutely formulaic. It’s a lavish but derivative space adventure, reads Variety’s review.https://t.co/MY5aCX93OD pic.twitter.com/CPFN3sTxoU
— Variety (@Variety) March 10, 2026
Peter Bradshaw is the type of guy who’ll give 5 stars to BDSM Ping Pong, but 3 stars to Project Hail Mary. His favorite activity is talking for three hours at Thanksgiving about a film only seven people had seen. pic.twitter.com/MFHe2xX7fY
— Super XX (@nonzerosumgain) March 11, 2026
‘Project Hail Mary’ Review: Ryan Gosling Proves He Can Have Chemistry With a Rock in Thrilling Space Odyssey Warmed by Humanity and Hope https://t.co/clCfiNKNDR
— The Hollywood Reporter (@THR) March 10, 2026
‘Project Hail Mary’ Review: Ryan Gosling Goes Full ‘Martian,’ and Thank the Heavens for That https://t.co/bwk9dKh43k
— IndieWire (@IndieWire) March 10, 2026
Normally, we’d look more closely at that massive $200 million price tag and a spring release date. Films of this type and that cost typically land in the summer timeframe, but since this an Amazon project, I don’t think the budget is the primary concern. Sure, it needs to make money, but it’ll do just fine. Gosling is very popular, just coming off of a well received stint on Saturday Night Live where he literally could not hold a straight face through the entire episode. You may find that annoying. I find that a little endearing honestly.
No, it seems like Amazon might be positioning the film for something bigger. Maybe they’re following last year’s Sinners trajectory which entered the 2026 Oscar race with over $350 million worldwide and a record haul of 16 Oscar nominations. Maybe they wanted to avoid the fall festival season by playing the long game. It’s been successful before: Silence of the Lambs, Crash, and others. Sometimes, being the film that everyone’s seen multiple times and loved intensely by the time Oscar voting happens is the way to go. We’ll see if that benefits Sinners this year.
But audiences haven’t seen Project Hail Mary yet, so its 2027 Oscar story has yet to be written. But it’s safe to say, right now on the advent of the 2026 Oscar race, that we have our first major broad contender. Or maybe it’s just a good time at the movies.
That would be great too.
It'll be quite a feat if it matches The Martian's box office in today's environment. It'll probably match it in the nominations, though: Picture, Actor, Screenplay, and a bunch of techs.