The film adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel “Project Hail Mary” took the world by storm in March, dominating pop culture conversation and riding a massive worldwide opening to $656 million at the box office to date. With an endearingly charming Ryan Gosling as a hesitant middle school science teacher turned astronaut on a mission to save Earth, the film about hope and friendship has officially become a global phenomenon. After having been in theaters for seven weeks, “Project Hail Mary” arrived on premium video-on-demand (PVOD) platforms to rent or purchase on Tuesday, May 12. Then, on Thursday, June 18, it made its way to MGM+, but finally, over the Fourth of. July holiday weekend, the space epic finally became available to stream on Prime Video.

“Project Hail Mary” follows the adventure of Ryland Grace, a science teacher who wakes up on a spaceship far from Earth, with no memory of who he is or how he got there. Slowly, his mission becomes clear: solve the mystery of a powerful substance that’s causing the sun to die out. The fate of the human race is in his hands, but he soon finds aid from an unexpected source.

Thus far, the film has received sterling reviews from critics. “Project Hail Mary” has a 95% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, and has registered an 80 on Metacritic, indicating “Generally Favorable” reviews. The movie is creating quite a bit of buzz and figures to be a hit in theaters.

Watch the trailer for ‘Project Hail Mary’

When will ‘Project Hail Mary’ be available to stream at home?

“Project Hail Mary” is being distributed by Amazon MGM Studios in the United States, a fact that we assumed would point to it streaming on two on-demand platforms. Since both Prime Video and the MGM+ are owned by Amazon, the company that distributed the film, it seemed like a logical move for the film to grace both services this summer. After the movie was initially made available to rent or buy on PVOD platforms, including Prime Video, it was the Amazon-owned MGM+ that got the first crack at the film’s streaming exclusivity. After three weeks of being the only on-demand streaming service with the film, Prime Video joined the space party on Friday, July 3.

Since Amazon owns the largest PVOD platform as well as “Project Hail Mary’s” eventual streaming home, it had little incentive to rush the rental window. That is one reason why the timing and destination of MGM movies can be a bit tricky to predict. In this case, there are likely two explanations for why “Project Hail Mary” is set for MGM+ rather than Prime Video. The most likely explanation is that it has to do with a distribution contract that was signed before Amazon took over MGM. However, the other possibility could be that Amazon knows how popular the film is and wants to guide more cord-cutters to its smaller platform to give it a boost before moving it to the mother ship.

These types of moves are not uncommon for Amazon. For example, the 2024 release “Blink Twice” took 89 days to reach MGM+ after premiering in theaters, then took another two months to debut on Prime Video.

As we initially predicted, “Project Hail Mary” is sticking to Amazon’s standard release window of roughly 90 days. Our initial prediction was that it would stream on both Prime Video and MGM+ beginning on Friday, June 19. Since it began streaming on MGM+ on June 18, I think we can at least consider that a partial win.