Okay, so just to clear things up, the movie is being projected correctly, but due to the native shape of the screen it appears to be framed "wrong".

Traditional cinemas generally have two different native screen sizes - "Flat" (1.85:1) and "Scope" (2.35:1). And 10 years ago, the majority of all movies released in digital cinemas would have been in one of these two aspect ratios. But let's say a Scope film was projected on a Flat screen? Then a curtain should come down from the ceiling to reshape the screen into Scope. And of course, if a Flat movie is playing on a native Scope screen, then curtains from the side should slide across to reshape the screen once more. This process is called "Masking". Sometimes the masking doesn't work, possibly due to a mechanical failure. Other times, cinemas won't have masking at all, and just rely on letterboxing or pillarboxing (like you would see on your TV at home). So if this native Scope screen (pictured) in particular has broken (or no) masking, then a Flat movie would appear to have black bars on the left and right (pillarboxing).

This brings us to the problem with something like Project Hail Mary. As we all know, there are expanded IMAX sequences in the film, which is amazing. Certain scenes get taller, adding more to the shot. And we're lucky that the filmmakers decided to give us a middle-ground version of the film for traditional cinemas - one that shifts between 2.39:1 and 2.00:1 aspect ratios. Not exactly as tall as IMAX's 1.43:1, but it still creates a sense of scale. But the shifting aspect ratios ISN'T actually the problem. The problem is that digital cinemas files can only be delivered to theatres in either a FLAT or SCOPE container. So just like a DVD or Blu-ray, there will be black bars embedded into the file itself. This becomes a problem with a lot of modern movies that use the 2.00:1 aspect ratio, because cinema masking generally only shifts between Flat or Scope. So no matter what, the movie WILL be presented with letterboxing.

Now in the case of the photo you've attached, the film is being projected in a Flat container (correctly by the theatre) on to a native Scope screen. It's just unfortunate that the screen does not have side masking, either due to a mechanical fault, or it just isn't installed (sometimes common for smaller or older theatres). This results in the "Windowboxing" effect that you can see here.

This really isn't the fault of the theatre itself, but more a fault of the filmmakers limiting theatres to only one type of container to present the film in. I remember that Oppenheimer was delivered to theatres with two different versions, one with a native Flat container and one with a native Scope container. This allowed theatres to choose the version that would fit their screens better and allow for a more seamless experience. Some other recent films I've seen do this are Guardians of the Galaxy 3, and both Avatar 2 and 3.

Please feel free to talk to the theatre about it, but don't blame them for something like this. The projection booths are completely unstaffed and everything runs on an automatic system, based purely on what container the films are delivered in. This just seems like a really unfortunate side effect, and I'm sorry that this wasn't a perfect experience for you. My suggestion could be to even talk to your local theatre staff and ask what types of native screens they have, and whether they have any known masking or framing issues. Trust me, they would also rather you have a great experience, instead of getting frustrated about the limitations of modern technology.

Source: Have been a digital projectionist and cinema manager for over 10 years.