‘Super Mario Bros’ Adds Animation Record $87 Million in 2nd Box Office Weekend

Jeremy Fuster
Updated ·2 min read
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Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is well on its way to becoming the fifth film since movie theaters reopened to cross the $1 billion mark, as the Nintendo animated film has grossed $678 million worldwide after 12 days in theaters, making it the year’s highest grossing film so far.

At a time when films ranging from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” to “John Wick: Chapter 4” have taken second weekend drops of 60% or more, “Super Mario Bros” fell just 41% from its $146 million domestic opening weekend, grossing $87 million this weekend. That breaks the record set by “Frozen II” for the highest second weekend ever recorded by an animated film.

With $347 million grossed in North America, “Super Mario Bros.” is a whopping 62% ahead of the domestic pace set by fellow Illumination film “Minions: The Rise of Gru” last year, and at this pace will soon more than double the previous video game adaptation box office record set by “Warcraft” with $439 million worldwide.

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Overall, “Super Mario Bros.” is estimated to account for 60% of all box office revenue for the weekend, peeling away general audiences from the rest of the competition. This includes fellow Universal film “Renfield,” which is opening No. 5 this weekend with just $7.7 million.

While the film’s mixed-to-positive reception with a B- on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 59% critics and 80% audience are weighing down this R-rated horror comedy along with the “Mario” competition, “Renfield” is nonetheless set to become a theatrical flop with a $65 million production budget before marketing. Of course, the runaway success of “Mario” should easily make up for any losses Universal incurs from “Renfield.”

Beating “Renfield” for No. 2 on the charts is Sony/Screen Gems’ “The Pope’s Exorcist,” an occult horror film that is opening to $9.1 million from 3,178 locations. Unlike “Renfield,” “The Pope’s Exorcist” was made on a much tighter budget of $18 million, leaving open the possibility of this title at least breaking even theatrically. Rotten Tomatoes scores are 47% critics and 83% audience, with a B- on CinemaScore.

Also narrowly beating “Renfield” are the holdover weekends of Amazon Studios’ “Air” and Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.” Current estimates have “Wick 4” taking the No. 3 spot with $7.9 million in its fourth weekend, giving it a domestic total of $160 million. “Air” is currently estimated to earn $7.72 million in its second weekend, giving it a two-weekend total of $33.2 million.

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