‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Makes History

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” racked up a blockbuster $146 million in its opening weekend and powered to $204.6 million in its first five days of release, squashing expectations and steamrolling the competition at the domestic box office.It accounted for 74% of all tickets sold in the U.S. and Canada.

The Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic-directed film inspire the boxoffice.  The film delivered a stunning $33,700 per-theater average from 4,343 locations. Domestically The Super Mario Bros. film took incredible advantage of premium format screens. Of its total box office haul, 38% of Mario’s opening weekend box office came from Imax, PLF, motion seats, and 3d screens, the latter of which was responsible for 15% of the film’s gross all on its own.

Plumbing down to international markets, Mexico is just insane. With $27.4M, it hit the 3rd-biggest opening weekend of all time; Universal’s best and an animated best. The UK follows with $19.6M; Illumination’s best and tops for a video game adaptation, among other records. Germany grossed $14M. China, amid meh reactions to Hollywood movies in general of late, did $12M including the biggest opening day for a studio animated title in the pandemic era. France paid $10.4M across the opening and made Mario the biggest animated opening since the start of the pandemic, biggest opening for a video game adaptation and second-biggest Illumination opening of all-time.

Other stellar starts include the following: Australia ($8.3M), Italy ($7.9M), and Brazil ($6.9M).

“Cinemas around the world were filled with kids and families drawn by the communal fun that the film promised and delivered in this perfectly executed video game adaptation,” says Paul Dergarabedian, a senior Comscore analyst. “This is great news for theaters.”

“The box office just kept growing and growing,” says Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “This result speaks to the extraordinary love for these Nintendo characters and the storytelling from Illumination.”