The Super Mario Bros. Movie is on its way to taking No. 1 at the box office for the second week in a row. The film, which premiered this past weekend, is a collaboration between Illumination Entertainment and Nintendo, crafting a narrative featuring the world and characters of the popular Mario games with an all-star cast that includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black. The film’s opening weekend raked in a dazzling $377 million, beating out Frozen II as the highest-grossing global opening for an animated film ever.
Per Variety, the Super Mario Bros. Movie cast has more reason to rejoice this weekend. Although the film is projected to drop around 60% from last weekend, it is still set to take the No. 1 slot at the domestic box office with a gross between $58 and $66 million. This easily trounces the weekend’s two new major releases, Renfield and The Pope’s Exorcist, both of which are set to earn about $10 million apiece.
Could Summer 2023 Possibly Improve On Super Mario’s Record Opening?
The Super Mario Bros. Movie‘s massive success comes at the end of a hot streak for the box office. Month after month, the box office has been recovering from the pandemic doldrums. Whether it was M3GAN becoming a smash hit in January (earning nearly $100 million in the U.S. alone), or Scream VI, John Wick: Chapter 4, and Creed III all breaking franchise records this March, the 2023 box office has been turning out hit after hit.
While films like Renfield and The Pope‘s Exorcist show that not every theatrical outing is a smash, the first third of 2023 would seem to indicate that this is going to be a banner year for theaters. However, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie raking in the cash and more or less guaranteeing a sequel or even a franchise, it remains to be seen if the upcoming summer tentpoles can compete. Some May outings, like Fast X and The Little Mermaid, seem set to turn out huge grosses, but other titles are less certain.
June is likely to dispel any doubt with the hat trick of Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts, and Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. However, Elemental could fall behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as Pixar’s last box office outing, 2022’s Lightyear, was a significant failure for the usual sterling studio. Late summer also features titles that could go either way, including The Meg 2 and Haunted Mansion, but considering the overall trend of this year, summer could potentially land even higher than spring is turning out so far.
