Illumination and Universal Pictures’ Nintendo video game adaptation “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has just kept powering up over the Easter holiday weekend. In the process, the film scored the biggest opening of all time not just for a video game adaptation but for any animated film worldwide.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has taken in $377 million in worldwide ticket sales over the Wednesday-Sunday period, including a massive $205.6 million domestic take. In its Friday-Sunday regular three-day window alone, it managed $146.4 million domestically.
Along the way, it has also broken numerous records. It has beaten the worldwide launch of “Frozen II” at $358 million to take the worldwide best-animated opening. Domestic only, it has come in second behind only “Incredibles 2”.
It also landed the biggest five-day domestic launch ever after besting “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” ($200 million), is the best-ever opening for an Illumination title, is the top opening of 2023 to date, outgrossed the entire global run of “Sonic the Hedgehog” in one weekend, and doubled the global opening of Illumination’s “Minions: Rise of Gru” last year.
This has far exceeded box-office expectations two weeks or so ago for the film, which stood at around $125 million domestically for the five-day. The film is being buoyed by appealing to both families and general audiences, with the multi-generational game pulling in plenty of people from across the spectrum.
Amazon Studios also debuted the Ben Affleck-directed adult drama “Air” which took in a better-than-expected $20.2 million for the five days.
Last weekend’s winner, “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves”, unfortunately hasn’t gained much traction with audiences as it fell 61% in its second round.
Source: THR
