Mar 01, 2026 7:29pm IST
‘Dhurandhar 2’ vs ‘Toxic’ vs ‘Project Hail Mary’: Expect Three-Way Clash on March 20! (EXCLUSIVE)
The clash between Ranveer Singh’s “Dhurandhar: The Revenge” and Yash’s “Toxic: A Fairytale For Grown-Ups’’ on Mar. 19 is inevitable. Both films are gunning for top dollar at the domestic and global box-office and any film getting in the way can expect to get decimated in the crossfire, as things stand.
When split between the two films, remaining screens will be scant and even Ryan Gosling’s upcoming ‘Project Hail Mary’ (currently due Mar. 20) will find it tough to find a foothold, by current estimates being put out. In fact, PVR-Inox, India’s largest cinema chain (at 1700+ screens) has gone as far as shifting “Project Hail Mary”’s release date to Apr. 3, as per their standalone app.
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But as Variety India has exclusively learned, a three-way clash is indeed happening, in spite of the two films fighting to secure the most screens, especially in the premium IMAX and Dolby formats domestically. By most estimates, India has close to 9000 screens and with PVR-Inox shifting their release date, that means close to 30% screens will be unavailable to the Hollywood film if they choose to release on Mar. 19. This also means they lose out on 26 of 34 establishments that have functional IMAX screens nationwide.
A source close to the India promotions team for “Project Hail Mary” confirmed that the Gosling film is sticking to its originally scheduled release date (March 20). And while PVR’s app has updated a date for PHM, ticketing platforms BookMyShow and District maintain the space sci-fi Hollywood biggie’s release date is unchanged.
When reached for comment on the discrepancy – PVR-Inox put out a trailer for their slate of releases for March on their socials hours earlier today which features PHM on both the thumbnail and in the video with Mar. 20 as the date, even though the app shows Apr, 3 as the India release date – they confirmed that “the trailer was locked before the date postponement development was confirmed” and that they were now scheduled to release next month.
Since "Project Hail Mary" is 'Filmed for IMAX,' there are chances that it would lose out on screens if it releases on March 20.
“Project Hail Mary”, based on Andy Weir’s book of the same name and directed by Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, narrates the story of Dr Ryland Grace (played by Ryan Gosling), an astronaut on a critical mission to save humanity and Earth from the dying sun.
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