The Super Mario Bros. Movie Scores Record Opening

Illumination/Universal’s Super Mario Bros. made an incredible splash at the box office this weekend, grossing an astronomical $146.36 million domestically over the 3-day weekend and a record $204.6 million over its first five days, per Deadline. To put that in perspective, Illumination’s previous top opening was 2015’s Minions, which earned $115M domestically en route to a $336 million domestic and $1.157 billion worldwide finish.

Worldwide, the pic earned the biggest opening for an animated flick with a massive $377 million, besting the record held by Disney’s Frozen II ($358.5 million) in 2019.

Imax accounted for 15% of Mario’s gross or a global sum of $21.6M, the highest opening for an animated film ever. With an A CinemaScore, it’ll be interesting to see how this one fares in the weeks ahead, particularly without much competition from family films outside Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on May 5.

Ben Affleck’s Air, starring Matt Damon, also surpassed expectations, taking in $20.2M domestically in its first weekend, proving adults still go to the movies.

Otherwise, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves grossed $14.5M in its second weekend (a 61% drop, which is a shame because it’s a lot of fun) to bring its domestic total to $61.1M. Meanwhile, John Wick: Chapter 4 took the No. 2 spot with another $14.6M (-48%) to raise its cume to $147M after three weeks. The Keanu Reeves action extravaganza is less than $25M away from overtaking Chapter 3’s domestic total ($171M) and roughly $60M from surpassing its worldwide haul ($327M).

Box Office Results: Domestic Top 10

1. Super Mario Bros Movie (Ill/Uni) 4,343 theaters, Wed $31.7M Th $26.5M Fri $54.8M Sat $56.87M Sun 3-day $146.36M, 5-day $204.6M/Wk 1
2. John Wick: Chapter 4 (LG) 3,607 (-248) theaters, Fri $4.8M (-39%), Sat $5.9M Sun $3.8M 3-day $14.6M (-48%), Total $147M/Wk 3
3. Dungeons & Dragons (Par/eOne) 3,856 theaters, Fri $4.85M (-68%), Sat $5.8M Sun $3.85M 3-day $14.5M (-61%), Total $62.2M/Wk 2
4. Air (Amazon) 3,507 theaters, Wed $3.2M Thu $2.4M Fri $5M Sat $5.8M Sun $3.5M 3-day $14.46M, 5-day $20.2M/Wk 1
5. Scream VI (Par) 2,286 theaters (-156), Fri $1.2M (-20%) Sat $1.37M Sun $690K 3-day $3.31M (-38%), Total $103.8M/Wk 5
6. His Only Son (Angel) 1,930 theaters, Fri $1M, Sat $1.25M Sun $1M 3-day $3.25M (-41%), Total $11M/Wk 2
7. Creed III (MGM) 2,002 theaters (-825), Fri $1M (+112%) Sat $1.1M Sun $681K 3-day $2.8M (-44%), Total $153.2M/Wk 6
8. Shazam! Fury of the Gods (WB) 2,203 (-1,248) theaters, Fri $600K (-50%) Sat $600K Sun $400K 3-day $1.6M (-65%), Total $56.6M/ Wk 4
9. Paint (IFC) 819 theaters, Fri $293K, 3-day $750K/Wk 1
10. Thousand and One (Foc) 926 theaters Fri $200K Sat $240K, Sun $160K 3-day $600K (-66%), Total $2.9M /Wk 2