Box office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ crosses $400 million, ‘Evil Dead Rise’ takes second place

Edward Douglas
·5 min read
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There looks to be no end in sight to the massive run Universal’s animated “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has been having.

This past weekend, it won its third weekend at the box office in a row, while also crossing $400 million. It made another $58.2 million (down 37%) over the weekend, potentially helped by the fact that the song “Peaches,” performed by Jack Black as the evil King Koopa Bowser, landed on the Billboard Hot 100 – a first for Black! – with 15 million streams on Spotify. That pushed the movie’s domestic total to $434.3 million, which is better than all but two movies released in 2022. (It will pass last year’s “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in the next day or so.)

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“Super Mario Bros.” made another $70.7 million overseas this weekend, which brings its international total to $437.5 million with an $871.8 million global total.

SEE 2023 box office hits: Every movie that made more than $100 million

Opening in 3,402 theaters was a new take on a Sam Raimi horror classic, with New Line’s “Evil Dead Rise” doing quite well after racking up strong reviews from its SXSW Film Festival debut. After making $2.5 million in Thursday previews, rolled into its $10.3 million opening Friday, the movie – written and directed by Lee Cronin and starring Alyssa Sutherland and Lily Sullivan – brought in an estimated $23.5 million to take second place. Audiences didn’t seem as enamored as the critics, only giving the movie a “B” CinemaScore, although to be fair, that was the same score for “M3gan” earlier this year.

“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier in Afghanistan whose life is saved by his interpreter (Dar Salim), opened in 2,611 theaters on Friday, going into the weekend with 81% on Rotten Tomatoes from critics, but a much better 98% Audience Score. It opened quite far behind “Evil Dead Rise” with $2.3 million on Friday and an estimated $6.3 million for the weekend. It also received an “A” CinemaScore, so maybe there’s some hope for this to find some word-of-mouth business.

Keanu Reeves‘ “John Wick: Chapter 4” took fourth place with an estimated $5.8 million, the first of three returning movies with small drop-offs, down just 28% from last weekend, as it edges closer to surpassing the domestic take of “Chapter 3” with the $168.9 million it’s made so far.

Ben Affleck‘s “Air” also had a great third weekend with Amazon reporting it only fell 29% to $5.5 million, enough for fifth place, bringing its total to $41.3 million. The movie is doing well enough that Amazon and MGM can hold off from throwing it onto one of its two streaming platforms for a while.

SEE 24 most anticipated movies for April include ‘Air,’ ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie,’ ‘Evil Dead Rise’ … [PHOTOS]

“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” dropped to sixth place with $5.4 million (down 28%), but it has grossed $82.2 million just in North America, so maybe Paramount will weigh its opening for a sequel.

Most of last weekend’s new releases had massive dropoffs, with Russell Crowe‘s “The Pope’s Exorcist” – which released a late “B-” CinemaScore – falling a horrifying 63% in its second weekend to seventh place (from second place last week) with $3.3 million. The Universal horror-comedy “Renfield,” starring Nick Hoult and Nic Cage, also took a 61% plunge all the way down to eighth place with $3.1 million with a total of $13.6 million.

After a strong opening in just four theaters in New York and L.A., Ari Aster‘s absurdist comedy “Beau is Afraid,” starring Joaquin Phoenix, expanded into 962 theaters as A24 decided to follow a similar slower roll-out as last year’s Oscar-winning “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” It only made $2.7 million, averaging $2,827 per theater, which might not bode well for any further expansion, though it’s likely to add more theaters on Friday regardless.

SEE What to watch this weekend April 21, 2023: Movie awards contenders

Crunchyroll’s animated “Suzume” also had a massive drop, falling 74% in its second weekend to tenth place with $1.6 million, for a domestic take of $8.4 million in ten days.

Kelvin Harrison Jr. starred in the biopic, “Chevalier,” about Joseph Bologne, a lesser-known composer from 17th Century France, which Searchlight Pictures released into 1,275 theaters, where it grossed an estimated $1.5 million, which wasn’t quite enough to get into the top 10.

Ray Romano made his directorial debut with the comedy, “Somewhere in Queens,” which Roadside Attractions released nationwide into 602 theaters, although it hasn’t reported its box office yet.

Picks for third place in this week’s box office prediction game were all over the place, but generally 49 to 52 players had the placement for third through fifth correctly, at least based on Sunday estimates.

SEE ‘The Covenant’ review round-up: Guy Ritchie and Jake Gyllenhaal emerge as a ‘well-meshed Hollywood duo’

No one should feel bad that only seven players went 4 for 6 in the April 14 game, because like many, I presumed “Renfield” would take second place. Even so, “Zkrons” won the weekend with 6,008 points.

On Friday, Lionsgate opens the Judy Blume adaptation, “Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret,” while Sony releases the boxing biopic, “Big George Foreman.” You can read about both of those and more in Wednesday’s weekend preview.

PREDICTthe 2023 Emmy nominees through July 12

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