Mixed reviews did not discourage mass audiences from buying tickets “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” Which achieved the biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood film. The Illumination and Nintendo co-production grossed a whopping $130.9 million in North American theaters over the weekend and $190.1 million in its first five days, according to studio estimates Sunday.
Universal Pictures released the sequel globally on Wednesday, taking advantage of children’s spring break vacation in the week before the Easter holidays. With an estimated $182.4 million from 80 foreign markets, the film is expected to gross a whopping $372.5 million – Latest Hit for PG rating. Mexico leads the international pack with $29.1 million on 5,136 screens, followed by the UK and Ireland with $19.7 million.
The animated sequel, Illumination CEO Christopher Meledandri’s 16th film in 16 years, is the industry’s biggest debut since “Avatar: Fire and Ashes” Launched on Christmas. However, Chinese film “Pegasus 3”, which was not a Motion Picture Association release, has a slight lead for the global record for 2026.
That’s less than the first film, which made $204 million domestically during the same five-day time frame in 2023 ($147 of which were on Friday, Saturday and Sunday). “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” became the second biggest movie of 2023 with over $1.3 billion at the box office.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie”, starring voice actors Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day, drew massive attendance in the US and Canada, where it played in 4,252 theaters, including 421 IMAX and 1,345 premium large format screens. It made $15 million from IMAX screens alone.
“This is exactly the kind of wide, crowd-pleasing release that brings people to theaters,” AMC chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.
It cost approximately $110 million to make, not including marketing and promotional expenses. But it arrived on a wave of less-than-stellar reviews. Its Rotten Tomatoes score currently stands at a bad 40%. However, ticket buyers were more excited.
According to a PostTrak exit poll, family audiences gave the film five out of five stars, while general audiences gave it four stars and an A- on CinemaScore. The audience was overwhelmingly male (61%), although when it came to families there were slightly more mothers than fathers (52%).
Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, said, “Audience reaction scores like this point to ridiculously strong performance not only throughout the spring, but into the summer as well.”
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will be released in Japan later this month.
Last year, the first weekend of April hosted the launch of another video game blockbuster, “A Minecraft Movie,” Which had a big three-day debut ($162.8 million), but not the strong second place “Project Hail Mary”, meaning the weekend total was still up around 5%.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ended as expected two week reign Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi hit “Project Hail Mary,” which landed in its second and third weekends in theaters, where it added $30.7 million, bringing its total domestic gross to $217.2 million. Worldwide, it has grossed $420.7 million to date.
Third place goes to A24’s provocative new film “Drama,” Starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, it grossed an estimated $14.4 million from 3,087 theaters. The film’s stars have been on a massive and lucrative press blitz to promote their R-rated film, about an engaged couple grappling with a disturbing revelation, which reportedly cost $28 million to produce. This revelation has sparked a great deal of cultural discussion. Although reviews have been mostly positive (82% on Rotten Tomatoes), it received a less promising B CinemaScore.
“Hoppers” and “Reminders of Him” entered the top five. And the box office outlook looks bright overall, up nearly 30% from last year.
“There’s no better opening act to a spectacular summer than a massive month of April driven by a mega-blockbuster like ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,'” said Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at comScore.
This list takes into account estimated ticket sales at US and Canadian theaters from Friday to Sunday, with final domestic figures released on Monday, according to comScore:
1. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $130.9 million.
2. “Project Hail Mary,” $30.7 million.
3. “The Drama,” $14.4 million.
4.Hoppers, $5.8 million.
5.’Reminders of Him’, $2.2 million
6. “The Great Awakening,” $2.1 million.
7. “They’ll Kill You,” $1.9 million.
8.Dhurandhar The Revenge, $1.9 million.
9.’Ready or Not 2: Here I Come’, $1.8 million.
10.“Scream 7,” 915,000.
