Overseas, it earned $15.5 million from 61 markets for a tepid worldwide total of $124.1 million.īen Affleck’s Air grossed just under $14.5 million for the three-day weekend and $20.2 million for the five days, ahead of expectations considering that adult-skewing titles have struggled in the pandemic era. In its second outing, the movie fell 61 percent over the three-day Easter weekend to $14.5 million, for a domestic cume of $62.2 million. Paramount and eOne haven’t had such good luck with tabletop game adaptation Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, despite glowing reviews and an A CinemaScore. In terms of openings, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was the previous opening crown-holder with a $72 million debut. Until now, the only other big success story among big-screen video game adaptations has been Paramount’s Sonic the Hedgehog series.

“Mario officially says ‘game over’ to the video game movie adaptation curse.” “This is one of the biggest box office over-performances in recent memory and is absolutely shattering all pre-release projections,” says Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian.

Instead, moviegoers bestowed the film with an A CinemaScore. It landed the biggest five-day launch in history after besting Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen ($200 million) and is the best-ever opening for Chris Meledandri’s Illumination, home of Despicable Me and Minions.Ĭrowds turning out for the comedic adventure romp - which follows Brooklyn brothers and plumbers Mario (Chris Pratt) and Luigi (Charlie Day) as they are transported to the magical Mushroom Kingdom world - didn’t seem to care about so-so reviews. And globally, it bested the $358 million launch of Frozen II. In North America, Super Mario Bros.’ three-day weekend makes it the second-best start ever for an animated title behind Incredibles 2 after passing up Finding Dory. Both films opened Wednesday in order to get a jump on the spring holidays. Amazon Studios, which is testing giving its movies a traditional theatrical release, saw its debut title, Ben Affleck‘s adult drama Air, open to a better-than-expected $20.2 million for the five days (more on Air later). The mega-opening wasn’t the only significant note of Easter weekend. On the general audience side, a whopping 60 percent of ticket buyers were ages 18-34. The secret sauce - the PG pic is drawing both families and general audiences, reflecting the appeal of the wildly popular, multigenerational game. Mario, which creates an instant new film franchise, shattered numerous other records, including landing the top opening ever for a movie based on a video game and the top opening of 2023 to date on all fronts after surpassing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. 'Gabby's Dollhouse: The Movie' to Get the Big-Screen Treatment in 2025 The massive five-day domestic haul is $204.6 million, including $146.4 million for the three-day weekend, while the overseas tally stands at $171 million from 70 markets, according to final numbers released Monday (Sunday’s international tally was slightly higher at $173 million). The pic scored the top opening of all time for an animated film with $375.6 million in worldwide ticket sales, according to final numbers. Movie shattered all expectations and broke numerous records in its box office debut over the long Easter holiday weekend. Illumination and Universal’s Nintendo video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros.

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