Despite mixed reviews, mass audiences flocked to theaters to see “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which achieved the largest opening of the year for a Hollywood film. The Illumination and Nintendo collaboration generated $130.9 million over its opening weekend and an impressive $190.1 million in its first five days within North American cinemas, according to studio estimates released on Sunday.
Universal Pictures launched the sequel globally on Wednesday, strategically timing the release with children's spring break vacations leading up to the Easter holiday. The film amassed an estimated $182.4 million from 80 international markets, bringing its total debut to approximately $372.5 million, marking another success for the PG-rated genre. Mexico topped the international box office with $29.1 million from 5,136 screens, followed closely by the U.K. and Ireland with $19.7 million.
This animated sequel is the 16th film in 16 years directed by Illumination CEO Christopher Meledandri, and it marks the industry's top opening since “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” which debuted during the Christmas season. However, the Chinese film “Pegasus 3,” not affiliated with the Motion Picture Association, slightly outperformed this sequel in terms of prospective global records for 2026.
While the opening numbers are impressive, they represent a decline from the first film, which launched with $204 million domestically during the same five-day period in 2023 (with $147 million coming from Friday to Sunday). “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ultimately became the second highest-grossing film of 2023, raking in over $1.3 billion globally.
Featuring a cast of returning voice actors, including Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Charlie Day, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” had a significant presence in the U.S. and Canada, screening in 4,252 theaters, with 421 IMAX and 1,345 premium large format screens. The film generated $15 million from IMAX theaters alone.
AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron emphasized the film's broad appeal, stating, “It’s exactly the kind of broad, crowd-pleasing release that brings people into theatres.” The production budget for the film was around $110 million, not accounting for marketing and promotional expenses. Despite receiving unfavorable reviews—currently holding a 40% rating on Rotten Tomatoes—audience reactions were remarkably positive.
PostTrak exit polls indicated that the family audience awarded the movie a perfect five out of five stars, while general audiences rated it four stars and an A- on CinemaScore. Interestingly, the audience demographics skewed male at 61%, though slightly more moms (52%) than dads attended with their families.
Universal's president of domestic distribution, Jim Orr, mentioned that such audience reaction scores suggest a robust performance well into the spring and likely throughout the summer. “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is also set to debut in Japan later this month.
In the same weekend last year, another gaming film, “A Minecraft Movie,” opened with a bigger three-day take of $162.8 million but struggled to maintain momentum, resulting in a slower overall weekend. This year’s figures demonstrate a modest increase of about 5% overall from last year.
As anticipated, “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” ended the two-week success of the Ryan Gosling-led sci-fi movie “Project Hail Mary,” which secured second place in its third weekend, earning $30.7 million and accumulating a domestic total of $217.2 million, with a worldwide gross of $420.7 million.
In third place was A24’s highly anticipated film “The Drama,” starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, which generated an estimated $14.4 million from 3,087 theaters. The two stars have been actively promoting their R-rated film, which narrates the story of an engaged couple faced with a startling revelation, produced at a reported cost of $28 million. While the reviews have been generally positive (82% on Rotten Tomatoes), the film received a less favorable B on CinemaScore.
“Hoppers” and “Reminders of Him” completed the top five, while the overall box office outlook appears promising, with a boost of around 30% compared to the previous year. Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, noted that “there's no better opening act for a great summer than a huge month of April powered by a mega blockbuster like 'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.'”
Here is the list of the top 10 movies by domestic box office for the weekend:
- “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” $130.9 million.
- “Project Hail Mary,” $30.7 million.
- “The Drama,” $14.4 million.
- “Hoppers,” $5.8 million.
- “Reminders of Him,” $2.2 million.
- “A Great Awakening,” $2.1 million.
- “They Will Kill You,” $1.9 million.
- “Dhurandhar The Revenge,” $1.9 million.
- “Ready or Not 2: Here I Come,” $1.8 million.
- “Scream 7,” $915,000.
Reported by Lindsey Bahr for The Associated Press.
