It looks like everyone and their parents went to watch the latest Super Marios Bros. Movie over the weekend as the film has managed to set the cash registers on fire! The first instalment in what can only be called the next big animated franchise, the Mario Brothers scored a whopping $377 million globally in its 5-day opening weekend. With this amazing feat, the Super Mario Bros. Movie has become the highest-opening animated film in history. The box office record is a clear statement that family audiences do not care about reviews as the film opened to average to decent reports from the critics.
Super Mario Bros break records
The animated family offering by Universal and Illumination struck the right chords with the audience over the weekend. The film raked in about $204.6 million in the first five-day weekend in its domestic market of the USA. Whereas, an estimated international earning of $173 million was also recorded taking the cumulative to $377 million global total. Mario did not just break records for an animated film but also videogame adaptation films passing Warcraft’s $210 million and Frozen 2’s $358 million.
Surprisingly, the film also surpassed industry expectations by a big margin. Industry predictions set the film to make $225 million over its opening weekend which was easily surpassed by the film. Mario’s success does come as a surprise as I watched it during Thursday early previews with a packed theatre in Mumbai consisting of people from all age groups be it kids or senior citizens. Similar to the Minions trend back in 2022, Mario also witnessed people dressing up as the characters from the series to watch the film in theatres, making it a celebration.
On the other hand, Ben Affleck’s ‘Air’ also made its debut in the USA grossing $20 million in its opening weekend. Air brought a much-needed counter-programming to the box office storm of Mario Bros. catering only to adult audiences with its R-rating. Whereas, John Wick Chapter 4 also held its own in its third weekend at the box office raking in $14.5 million. It will be interesting to see if the Super Mario Bros. Movie manages to hit the $1 billion or $2 billion mark at the box office during its final run.