Peaches & Green: ‘Super Mario Bros Movie’ Tops $1B Worldwide; Smashes Studio Records In Japan – International Box Office

Nancy Tartaglione
·5 min read
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UPDATE, writethru: Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie has got super game as it levels up to cross 1B$ at the global box office through Sunday. It now becomes the 10th animated film in history to cross $1B worldwide, and is the 10th biggest animated film of all time globally, overtaking Despicable Me 2 and Minions: The Rise Of Gru. The Super Mario Bros Movie is the third Illumination title to hit the $1 billion mark.

The juggernaut powered-up to an additional of $68.3M this session in 80 overseas markets, bringing its international receipts to-date through Sunday to $532.5M. Worldwide, the estimate through today is $1.022B.

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Notably, Japan opened this weekend. On 776 screens, the start was a huge $14.3M to score the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated studio movie, as well as the biggest Saturday box office in Universal history – topping Jurassic World Dominion. In only two days, Super Mario became the fastest Universal film to reach 1B yen, and the weekend result is the biggest Universal opening of all time.

Korea bowed to $5.7M with strong business on the weekend days. Playing into holidays next week, it’s got a 96% CGV Egg score and had the biggest non-holiday Illumination opening, in line with Jungle Book, Rise of Gru, Secret Life of Pets and Minions.

The Top 5 markets to date are Mexico ($73.2M), UK ($56.4M), Germany ($43.9M), France ($40.8M) and Australia ($31.1M). In IMAX, the cume is now $45.3M worldwide, the 3rd highest result ever for an animation title.

To date, Super Mario is performing above many comps. For example, and excluding finicky China, it is over Jurassic World by 12%, 16% ahead of Frozen II, 27% in front of Minions, 32% over Beauty and the Beast; 33% ahead of Spider-Man: Far From Home and 51% above last year’s Minions: The Rise of Gru.

New Line/Warner Bros’ Evil Dead Rise had a very slight drop, down just 29% for a $14.2M sophomore session in 61 overseas markets. Saudi Arabia jumped by 23% while the UAE was off only 5%; holds were also strong in parts of Europe and Latin America. The offshore cume is $42.1M for a global total of $86.5M to date.

Lionsgate’s John Wick: Chapter 4 is still barreling along with  $10.1M from 86 territories in its 6th weekend.  The offshore cume is now $226M for a global total of $402M..

Paramount’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves topped the $100M mark at the international box office this session. It added $7.1M from 65 markets and has now grossed $106M overseas for $194.2M global.

In China, local pic Born to Fly, led all play with a $41M debut. There is a five-day holiday in the market with other new titles showing strength including Godspeed.

MISC UPDATED CUMES/NOTABL
Air (WB): $2.5M intl weekend (71 markets); $31.4M intl cume/$79M global
Renfield (UNI): $1.3M intl weekend (65 markets); $6.1M intl cume/$22.4M global
*Knights of the Zodiac (SNY): $2.4M intl weekend (14 markets) 
Tokyo Revengers 2 Part 1 (WB): $2.4M intl weekend (Japan only); $8.7M Japan cume
Suzume (SNY/CR): $2M intl weekend (42 markets); $14M intl cume/$23.8M global (SNY/CR markets only)
Cocaine Bear (UNI): $595K intl weekend (73 markets); $22.7M intl cume/$87.1M global
*Polite Society (UNI): $434K intl weekend (7 markets); $434K intl cume/$1.23M global

(*Denotes new)

PREVIOUS, Saturday: It was just a matter of time. With estimates through Sunday, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Bros Movie is expected to cross $1B global tomorrow, becoming the first release of 2023 to the milestone, and the fifth of the pandemic era. It is getting there in 26 days. Wahoo!

The Aaron Horvath/Michael Jelenic-directed juggernaut sailed past $900M worldwide earlier this week and through Friday is at $970M. Of that, $483M is from the international box office, domestic is at $487M.

This weekend notably included openings in majors Korea and Japan. Through Friday, the Korea gross is $1.65M in second place. In Japan, play is strong.

This is the third title from Chris Meledandri’s Illumination to cross the $1B mark.

Super Mario Bros was already the No. 1 release of 2023 globally. Getting to $1B means that Mario and Luigi now front the biggest animated title worldwide since 2019 and the No. 1 animated studio film in the same period. Super Mario is now Universal’s No. 3 biggest animated film ever, (behind Minions and Despicable Me 3, having overtaken Minions: The Rise of Gru).

Other milestones: The plumbers are Universal’s seventh biggest movie ever around the world, beating Jurassic World Dominion and Despicable Me. Pic also ranks as the fourth biggest film since 2019 in global ticket sales surpassing Jurassic World Dominion, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Meldandri was at CinemaCon in Las Vegas this past week and on Thursday picked up an award for Excellence in Animation. At the time, he recounted that on opening weekend he’d snuck into three different cinemas to watch audiences watching the movie. At one, he said the audience was comprised of grandparents, children, couples and people dressed up “just having an incredible time.” He noted, “It dawned on me that at that moment there were 25,000 theaters across the globe that were playing our film and that there was a level of joy that we were providing for those audiences at a moment in time when the world needs joy so badly.” The movie made history with the biggest global opening ever for an animated title.

To the assembled exhibitors, he said, “This whole art form is not going to slip through our fingers because everybody here is determined to make it as great as it’s ever been.”

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