Box Office Sensation: ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Crosses Record $500M Globally

Pamela McClintock
Updated ·2 min read

Mario number one!

In under a week, Universal and Illumination’s Nintendo video game adaptation The Super Mario Bros. Movie has already become the top-grossing 2023 release to date at the global box office with $508.7 million in worldwide ticket sales through Thursday.

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It took only a matter of days for Super Mario to knock off Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, the year’s previous best earner with $474.4 million in global movie ticket sales, including $212.2 million domestically.

Super Mario‘s domestic gross through Thursday stands at year $260.3 million, which is likewise the top showing of the year to date. Overseas, it has earned a stellar $248.4 million.

The list of records shattered by the movie since its launch over the long Easter holiday continues to grow, including now ranking as the top-grossing video game adaptation of all time after passing up Warcraft ($439.4 million) and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu ($449.8 million).

And it is the second-biggest animated film since 2019 behind fellow Illumination release Minions: The Rise of Gru, which earned $942.5 million during its run last year. (Super Mario bumps anime blockbuster Slayer: Mugen Train, which earned $494 million worldwide, to No. 3.)

Other notable stats as it heads into its second weekend: Super Mario is already Universal’s tenth-biggest animated film of all time at the global box office and is among only 13 Hollywood movies to have crossed $500 million worldwide since 2019. Of the 13, five belong to Universal, more than any other studio (the other four are Jurassic World: Dominion, Rise of Gru, F9: The Fast Saga and No Time to Die, which Universal handled overseas).

Elsewhere, a plethora of new movies hit North American cinemas this weekend in what marks one of the most varied and crowded lineups since the pandemic struck.

Universal’s modern-day Dracula vampire comedy Renfield and Screen Gem’s supernatural thriller The Pope’s Exorcist are already finding themselves in a close race (many analysts believe the former will prevail).

Renfield, starring Nicholas Hoult and Nicolas Cage, started off with $900,000 in Thursday previews, followed by $850,000 for Russell Crowe-starrer Pope’s Exorcist. Tracking suggests the two films will open in the $8 million to $10 million range.

A wild card is anime maestro Makoto Shinkai’s coming-of-age anime adventure Suzume. A hit in its home territory of Japan late last year, the film is now rolling internationally after playing in competition at the 2023 Berlinale. Anime has been doing big business in U.S. theaters, and some analysts think Suzume could open anywhere from $5 million to $8 million. The movie, from Crunchyroll-Sony, grossed a promising $680,000 in previews.

More to come.

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