‘Project Hail Mary’ will start streaming on June 18. The film completes a 90-day theatrical window before moving online. Amazon MGM Studios confirmed the date this week.
The science fiction film is based on the novel by Andy Weir. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller directed and produced the project. Ryan Gosling plays the lead role.
Not heading to Prime first
Many expected the film to land directly on Prime Video. That is not happening. ‘Project Hail Mary’ will stream first on MGM+, a sister service under the same Amazon MGM umbrella. The film will move to Prime Video at a later point.
This shift in platform has raised questions across the industry. Amazon has faced criticism before for shrinking theatrical windows on films like ‘Saltburn’ and ‘Red One’. This time, the studio kept the window intact. The film still completed a full 90 days in theaters.
Also Read: From Rs 3 crore opening to Rs 100 crore dream: ‘Project Hail Mary’ stuns India box office in insane run
Box office numbers remain strong
‘Project Hail Mary’ has performed well at the global box office. The film has earned more than 678 million dollars worldwide. That places it as the third highest grossing movie of 2026 so far.
Despite this success, the studio chose MGM+ as the first stop for streaming. This decision reflects a wider strategy used across Amazon MGM’s slate.
Why the studio chose MGM+
According to sources close to the matter, this comes down to business decisions made early in development. Different films inside Amazon MGM follow different greenlight models. Some are backed directly by Prime Video. Others go through a separate process that includes a theatrical run, premium video on demand, and then MGM+ before reaching Prime.
‘Project Hail Mary’ falls into the second category. It went through the full theatrical and PVOD process, with MGM+ acting as the pay-one window. This is the same model used previously for ‘American Fiction’, the Oscar winning film backed by Amazon MGM.
Films that skip straight to Prime Video, such as ‘Red One’, typically follow a different financial structure. These projects often have budgets covered directly by Prime. They are also monetised differently inside the company. When a film is greenlit through Prime and studio executives believe it has strong theatrical potential, it usually receives an exclusive theatrical window before heading to streaming.
Comparing past theatrical windows
Other Amazon MGM titles have followed shorter theatrical windows before reaching Prime Video. ‘Red One’ had a 26-day exclusive theatrical run before streaming. ‘Air’ followed a 37-day window. ‘Saltburn’ moved to streaming after 35 days.
‘Project Hail Mary’, by comparison, completed a much longer 90-day theatrical run before any streaming release. This places it closer to traditional theatrical models rather than the shorter windows used for some other recent releases.