Bowza!: ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Makes History With $378M Global Start; Best-Ever WW Debut For An Animated Film & No. 2 Overseas Launch With $173M – International Box Office

Nancy Tartaglione
·13 min read
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SUNDAY UPDATE: Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie has made history with the biggest worldwide opening ever for an animated title at $377.5M. Of that plumb pazzo result, an estimated $172.8M comes from the international box office. Wahoo!, indeed.

The movie just took off with audiences — and four-quad, to boot. We’re now looking at a potential $1B worldwide grosser. Fans are loving it, and it’s expected to have strong legs with no clear competition in the marketplace going forward.

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We listed global milestones yesterday (see below), but it bears repeating that this is the biggest worldwide opening for animation ever, and natch of 2023; best for Illumination ever; biggest video game adaptation ever, and, in just the first frame is fully the 4th biggest Hollywood animation globally since the pandemic began (each of those top four spots belong to a Uni movie). Some of the other milestones include the biggest animated opening of all time in 10 markets, the biggest video game adaptation opening ever in 44 markets, the biggest Illumination debut in 30 markets, and the biggest Universal bow in 12 markets.

Plumbing down to international markets, Mexico is just insane. With $27.4M, it hit the 3rd-biggest opening weekend of all time; Universal’s best and an animated best. The UK follows with $19.6M; Illumination’s best and tops for a video game adaptation, among other records. Germany grossed $14M. China, amid meh reactions to Hollywood movies in general of late, did $12M including the biggest opening day for a studio animated title in the pandemic era. France paid $10.4M across the opening and made Mario the biggest animated opening since the start of the pandemic, biggest opening for a video game adaptation and second-biggest Illumination opening of all-time.

Other stellar starts include the following: Australia ($8.3M), Italy ($7.9M), and Brazil ($6.9M).

In IMAX, the global weekend was $21.6M. International was $5M, with a record opening for an animated title in 22 markets, including UK & Ireland, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands. It also achieved the animated title record in every single IMAX market across Latin America including Brazil and Mexico and delivered the all-time IMAX opening record (all titles) in Argentina, Chile and Colombia, among others.

There’s play ahead with Korea and Japan yet to open.

New this weekend was also Air, the Ben Allfeck-directed movie from Amazon which WB is handling overseas. With $10.5M from 59 markets, its global start is $30.7M. An additional 15 markets are still to come including Holland on April 13 and the rest of the Middle East later in April.

Australia was first among grosses at No. 3 with $1.6M, 28% above The Big Short, 74% over Moneyball, 156% bigger than Spotlight and 265% above King Richard. In the UK, the No. 4 launch brought in $1.4M at 47% bigger than King Richard and 264% above Moneyball. Ireland’s share of the box office was an excellent 20%.

An increasingly strong Italy gave Air a No. 2 start with $1.1M, well above comps including 172% over King Richard. Mexico grossed $992K, above comps and performed well in sophisticated venues with all the Top 10 locations coming from VIP theaters. Spain dunked $889K, ahead of King Richard by 57%.

Screen Gems’ The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe opened overseas to $12M in 43 markets. The film is tracking 46% ahead of The Rite, 7% over The Exorcism of Emily Rose and on par with Ouija: Origin Of Evil for the same group of markets at current exchange rates. Leading play was Mexico at $2.5M. Spain launched to $1.3M, followed by the UK and Brazil at $1M each. India bowed to $585K, the biggest opening for a horror movie since 2019. Lots more play to come with Italy, North America, France, Korea and Japan ahead.

In holdover business, Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 picked up another $21.5M from 75 markets. The overseas cume is $159M with global now over the three-century mark at $306M. The UK gross is $15.6M, followed by Germany ($14.1M), CIS ($11.2M) and Australia and Mexico at $11M each.

Last weekend’s opener Dungeos & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves saw a 45% dip in the sophomore session with $15.5M across 61 markets. Overseas sits at $61.8M for $124.1M worldwide. The UK and China are tied at $9.4M apiece, followed by Mexico at $4.6M, Australia at $4.2M and Germany at $4M. France and Brazil release next week.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABLE

Shazam! Fury of the Gods (WB):  $2.9M intl weekend (78 markets); $71.9M intl cume/$128.5M global
Creed III (WB): $2M intl weekend (67 markets); $114.7M intl cume/$268M global
Scream VI (PAR): $1.6M intl weekend (54 markets); $57.8M intl cume/$161.6M global

PREVIOUS, SATURDAY UPDATE: Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie is plumb insane with a projected five-day global opening of $368M. That gives the bros bragging rights to the biggest-ever worldwide debut for an animated title. Currently, the international box office portion of that is estimated at $173M from 70 markets.

This is the biggest animated opening of all time globally, ahead of Frozen 2 and clearly best for this year so far as well as Illumination’s top debut ever passing Minions and Despicable Me 3 in like-for-like opening markets and Despicable Me 2, the previous biggest reported global weekend at $208M.

What’s more, with this debut for the Mario Bros, Illumination crosses $5B in international box office across 13 films, and $8.45B worldwide.

In like-for-like markets at today’s dollars and including previews, the international Mario Bros opening is the he biggest Illumination opening of all time, the biggest animation opening of all-time when excluding China and the No. 2 biggest animated start ever for Hollywood when including China (just 13% behind Frozen 2)

More milestones? Sure: The biggest video game opening of all time passing Warcraft at $210M reported and in like-for-like markets; and the No. 4 Biggest Universal day & date global opening of all-time (behind Fast & Furious 8at $543M, Jurassic World at $525M and Fast & Furious 7 at $398M)

Overseas, this is the biggest opening of 2023 (ahead of Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania at $117.1M); the No. 2 biggest animated opening of all time (behind Frozen 2 at $228.2M); Illumination’s best start ever and the No. 4 biggest Universal day & date opening of al -time (behind Fast & Furious 8 at $444M, Jurassic World at $317M and Fast & Furious 7 at $250M) .

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FRIDAY UPDATE: The Super Mario Bros Movie continued its plunge into international box office markets on Thursday with an added $27.6M, lifting the offshore cume to $62.5M. Including domestic’s first two days, the worldwide total is $120.7M. This portends an overseas debut of $160M+ and a global start over $300M. Bow-wowser!

Leading play so far is Mexico with $11.4M, higher than the full opening weekend of any April animation, while also topping the full openings of Frozen 2, Aladdin and Finding Dory.

UK & Ireland delivered another record-breaking day on Thursday with $3.8M from 2,500 screens — biggest Thursday box office for an animated title ever and second-biggest Thursday ever for a Universal title, behind only No Time To Die. The two-day cume is $8.6M, which is above the entire 3-day opening weekends of Sing 2, Sing, Aladdin, HTTYD3, Sonic 2, and Frozen.

China reached $5.3M on Thursday; scores are good but the market is soft for Hollywood, particularly versus competition

Germany’s strong start continued on Thursday reaching $5.2M, higher than any April animated or family film’s full opening weekends, and topping the four-day weekends of Frozen, The Jungle Book, Minions Rise of Gru, and Incredibles 2.

Spain delivered another $1.8Mfrom over 1,000 screens on Thursday, with 60% market share. School holidays are in effect in the majority of the country, and the running total has now reached $4M ahead of Friday’s standard release day. Mario’s two-day is already above the full three-day weekends of Incredibles 2, Minions: The Rise of Gru, Toy Story 4, and Finding Dory.

Scoring also and beating comps are France ($2.7M), Central America ($2.7M), Italy ($2.6M), Australia ($2.3M) and Brazil at $1.8M; the Thursday gross was the third-biggest opening day of all-time for an animation, the biggest for Illumination and Universal, the biggest for any April animation, and the biggest for a video game adaptation.

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PREVIOUS, THURSDAY: With numbers now in for the 44 overseas markets that opened on Wednesday, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie had a more than peachy debut with $34.7M through yesterday at the international box office. Combined with Wednesday’s domestic bow, the global one-day total is $66.4M.

Several milestones/records were set in markets around the world on opening day, and overall when comparing Super Mario to standard opening days, it had the top animated launch day ever in 11 markets including Germany, Spain, Argentina, Central America and Austria. The Aaron Horvath/Michael Jelenic-directed film will clearly be well over early projections of $100M internationally through Sunday.

Mexico led play on Wednesday with $5.9M; the biggest debut for a Universal title ever and the second biggest animation opening day of all time, behind Toy Story 4.

The UK grossed $4.8M — the best animated opening day ever, biggest overall of 2023 and Universal’s top Wednesday of all time, ahead of both Fast 8 and No Time to Die.

Next up, China delivered $4.7M on Wednesday (versus the $4.95M estimate from yesterday — see below — the cume through Thursday is $5.4M which is not reflected in the above totals). Still, Mario set the biggest opening day for a Hollywood animation since the start of the pandemic in 2020 as well as the second-biggest opening day for a studio title in 2023. Its 9.4 score on Maoyan is the best for an animated Hollywood title across the past five years.

Germany grossed $2.8M on Wednesday for Uni’s best opening day of all time and hit the same milestone for an animated title. It’s also the best opening day since 2019’s Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker in the market and the second-biggest April opening day behind only Avengers: Endgame.

In Spain, the Mario Bros plunged in with a $2.2M Wednesday — the biggest animation opening day ever. In terms of admissions, the result overtakes Avatar: The Way of Water and Doctor Strange 2 to become the biggest opening day since the start of the pandemic, as well as the biggest April opening day ever (No. 2 in box office behind Avengers: Endgame).

France was good for $2.1M on Wednesday. That’s the biggest opening day of 2023, the second-best animation April opening behind Ice Age 2 and the best for Illumination — and without any school holidays. The film is playing into the start of school breaks which are spread across three regions for six weeks.

Italy opened to $1.4M on Wednesday, taking 70% of the market and dominating the competition. This is the biggest opening day for an animated movie in spring, and for a video game adaptation.

Other standouts include Central America with $1.3M for the second-biggest opening day ever behind Endgame and more than double Minions and the Despicable Me movies.

Taiwan made $1.1M on Wednesday, claiming the top animation opening day ever for both Illumination and Universal, as well as the biggest opening of a video game adaptation and biggest April animation.

Australia also bowed with $1.1M, playing across 311 locations. That’s the best opening day of 2023, biggest ever for Illumination and top April debut ever.

Elsewhere, Colombia opened to $810K on Wednesday, taking 73% of the market, and claiming the highest ever preview gross for a movie. Brazil started with $745K on Wednesday — the non-standard release day is already 62% ahead of the five days of previews from Sing 2. Hong Kong was $700K at 62 locations on Wednesday.  Argentina opened to  $460K; Netherlands bowed with $390K, biggest opening day of the year.

Note that all majors in this first suite have now opened; however there are still another 26 markets to come through Friday. Korea, the Middle East and Japan go later in April.

PREVIOUS, WEDNESDAY: Illumination/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie began its international rollout today in 44 markets, and will expand to 70 through Friday. While we are waiting on numbers from a great many of today’s debuts, early word out of Asia Pacific is encouraging at $7.95M including sneaks.

Note that the full Wednesday opening number will come tomorrow and will include such majors as France, Germany, Spain and Italy. Today is a snapshot.

In the lead so far for Asian markets on Wednesday, ever-mercurial China launched Mario to $4.95M at No. 3 during the Qing Ming festival. The Chris Pratt-starrer is facing off against the continued stellar run of Japanese animation Suzume and local holdover Hachiko. Still, Mario set the biggest opening day for a Hollywood animation since the start of the pandemic in 2020 as well as the second-biggest opening day for a studio title in 2023. Today’s numbers are above Minions: The Rise of Gru and The Secret Life of Pets (+42% and +43%, respectively, on a Friday); and in line with Aladdin and Incredibles 2. Maoyan has given Mario a 9.4 score from audiences; the best for a Hollywood animation in the last five years. Maoyan is currently predicting a $20M finish in the market; these numbers can certainly fluctuate.

Elsewhere in APAC, Australia gave Mario a No.1 $1.1M start on Wednesday. At 311 locations, this accounted for 62% of the total market on the day. The first day gross is more than 5x second-placed John Wick 4. It is also the biggest opening day of the year, best Illumination opening day ever, top animated April start of all time and above the standard Thursday opening days of Frozen 2, Incredibles 2, Finding Dory, The Jungle Book, Aladdin, Toy Story 4; and more than double Minions.

Hong Kong kicked off with $700K on Wednesday across 62 locations, claiming the biggest opening day of 2023, the biggest opening day for any Universal animation, and the biggest April animation opening day ever.

This is in line with the opening Thursday of Minions, and above the opening Thursdays of Incredibles 2, Beauty and the Beast and Toy Story 4

New Zealand got into the game with $66K on Wednesday at No.1 in the market from 140 screens, with 47% of the Top 10. That was good for the the 2nd biggest opening day for Illumination and is in line with the opening Thursday for Sing 2, above Minions and Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Much more to come through the weekend…

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