Super Mario Bros. Movie makes $377M in weekend debut
Mario has overtaken Frozen 2 for the best weekend opener for an animated film.
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has made $377 million in global ticketing box offices during its opening weekend (from Wednesday to Sunday), making $204.6 million in domestic box offices, according to ComScore.
The movie co-produced by Illumination and Nintendo and distributed by Universal Pictures blew past expectations. Why?
- Mario overtook Frozen 2 as the best weekend opener for an animated film.
- It topped Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania by easily becoming the biggest opener of the year.
- The movie also drove the biggest IMAX opening weekend of all-time, making $21.6 million globally.
In an interview with Axios, ComScore's senior media analyst Paul Dergarabedian said "Video game movies just got a huge next level boost from the performance of 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie,' [however] It's not like this is an easily repeatable outcome".
He explained that for each "Mario" and "Sonic," there are innumerable other attempts that have fallen flat in box offices due to a misguided marketing strategy or lack of creative execution.
"Super Mario is leading the charge for Universal in this next giant step for the genre and for the studio," Dergarabedian said.
Read more: New Super Mario Bros. Movie on the Way!