\n<\/p>\n
NEW YORK (AP) \u2014 Franchise movies have been the dominant currency in Hollywood for years, but, lately, the upside of originality has been hard to miss.<\/p>\n
A week after \u201cOne Battle After Another,\u201d \u201cSinners\u201d and \u201cKPop Demon Hunters\u201d all triumphed at the Academy Awards<\/a><\/span>, Phil Lord and Chris Miller\u2019s \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d<\/a><\/span> notched the biggest non-franchise opening weekend since \u201cOppenheimer.\u201d<\/a><\/span> In the first three months of 2026, the two biggest hits in theaters are it and the Pixar original \u201cHoppers.\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n All of these successes came at considerable expense. \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d based on the Andy Weir bestseller, cost close to $200 million to make. But its $80.5 million debut vindicated Amazon MGM\u2019s big bet, and gave the studio its largest box-office hit yet.<\/p>\n \u201cThey made a tremendous investment and it\u2019s going to pay off,\u201d Lord said in an interview alongside Miller last week. \u201cHow exciting to reward the people that took a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cProject Hail Mary,\u201d despite its title, isn\u2019t anyone\u2019s idea of a long shot. It stars one of the most widely liked actors in Ryan Gosling. Its source material, Weir\u2019s novel, is beloved. And it trades on much of the same science-first sci-fi appeal of 2015\u2019s best picture-nominated \u201cThe Martian,\u201d from an earlier book by Weir. Lord and Miller, the filmmakers of the \u201cSpider-Verse\u201d movies<\/a><\/span> and \u201cThe Lego Movie,\u201d have a long track record of success with both audiences and critics. <\/p>\n But the recent run for originality \u2014 at the Oscars and the multiplex \u2014 suggests audiences may be more eager for something different from the same old. At the least, the potentially cascading rewards of an original hit are freshly apparent at a time when a lot of big bets \u2014 like the $130 million-plus that Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s best picture winner \u201cOne Battle After Another\u201d cost Warner Bros. to make \u2014 have paid off so massively.<\/p>\n Ryan Gosling didn\u2019t set off on his latest space odyssey in just a boring astronaut suit. The 45-year-old star of \u201cProject Hail Mary\u201d credits his kids \u2014 and inspiration from Val Kilmer \u2014 for his stylish astro-nerd look in the sci-fi film. He sat down at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory to speak with AP entertainment journalist Leslie Ambriz alongside co-star Sandra H\u00fcller, directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, writer Drew Goddard and book author Andy Weir. In the movie, opening Friday in U.S. theatres, Gosling portrays a science teacher sent on a mission to save Earth from a dying sun. <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n \u201cPeople go to the movies to see a new experience,\u201d Miller said. \u201cThey don\u2019t go to see a thing they\u2019ve already seen. Originality has value, especially as AI gets into the picture. The value that we can bring as filmmakers is to bring something that can\u2019t be AI because it hasn\u2019t been thought of before.<\/p>\n \u201cSo it\u2019s good business.\u201d<\/p>\n Franchises have hardly been displaced. They will, no doubt, largely control the box office for the rest of year, beginning with Universal\u2019s \u201cThe Super Mario Galaxy Movie\u201d next month, followed by anticipated releases like \u201cToy Story 5,\u201d \u201cAvengers: Doomsday\u201d and \u201cDune: Part Three.\u201d Last week, the 11th \u201cSpider-Man\u201d movie this century, Sony Pictures\u2019 \u201cSpider-Man: Brand New Day,\u201d set a new trailer record with 718.6 million views in its first 24 hours.<\/p>\n So, yes, franchises still very much rule the day. But waves upon waves of sequels, reboots and remakes have made the few big-budget originals that manage to get made all the more singular.<\/p>\nFranchise domination<\/h2>\n