After years of stomping goombas and koopas, Mario just stomped upon the head of a Disney princess, by breaking an animated record in its second weekend at movie theaters.
Despite middling reviews from critics, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has proven dominant at the box office.
The Chris Pratt-led animated adventure is already the biggest video game adaptation of all time and is looking like it could potentially be the biggest movie of 2023 if this momentum continues.
No sequel for the title has been officially announced, but with these sorts of King Bob-Omb-sized numbers, one can imagine it is only a matter of time before Mario Bros. 2 gets the green light.
The Mario Bros. Movie Breaks Another Box Office Record
According to new data released by Exhibitor Relations Co. (who specialize in box office analysis), The Super Mario Bros. Movie just broke the record for the biggest second weekend for an animated film ever.
Nintendo and Illumination's romp across the Mushroom Kingdom edged out the previous 3-day second-weekend record holder, Frozen 2 ($86 million), by adding an estimated $87 million to its domestic total.
This brings the film's worldwide gross across the $500 million dollar mark, making the film the 13th biggest animated of all time.
The full list of the biggest second-weekend grosses for an animated film can be seen below:
- Frozen 2 - $86M
- Incredibles 2 - $80.3M
- Finding Dory - $72.9M
- Shrek 2 - $72.1M
- Toy Story 3 - $59.3M
- Inside Out - $52.3M
Can Mario Keep Up Its Momentum?
Mario's return to the big screen has been a long time coming, but it seems to have been something worth waiting for as fans are eating The Super Mario Bros. Movie up.
And from the looks of it, the animated epic has no sign of slowing down.
The fact this film hits across generations, with Mario being something beloved by kids, parents, and even grandparents at this point, means that this movie could have even longer legs than some other films.
Plus, add in the fact that there is not a major blockbuster on the scale of The Mario Movie set to hit theaters until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 on May 5, which means that the movie has time to breathe and could sit in that number one spot for another couple of weeks if the demand continues to be there.
Mario was expected to be a big hit at the box office, but even these numbers will be shocking to some, and it would not be all that surprising if fans look up in a couple of months and see Illumination's love letter to the classic video game franchise on the top 10 biggest box office hauls of all time.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is playing in theaters now worldwide.
