It’s him! The record-setting Mario!
It was a record-setting weekend for “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which topped $377 million in worldwide ticket sales, marking the top opening of all time for an animated film.
The film, based on the popular Nintendo video game, was released by Illumination and Universal. Many were skeptical about how the film would perform after critics handed out harsh ratings before it hit theaters. However, audiences showed they disagreed, giving more positive reviews of the film.
During the holiday weekend, the movie returned $204.6 million domestically over its first five days of release. Over the three-day weekend, it made $146.4 million, with $173 million coming in from overseas.
So far this year, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” holds the top opening of 2023, beating out “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.” The film also has the largest five-day launch in history, beating out the $200 million opening for “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen.”
Other records broken by the sibling plumber flic include the top opening ever for a movie based on a video game; the second-best start for an animated title ever, only behind “Incredibles 2”; and the best launch by an animated film globally, passing the $358 million launch of “Frozen II.”
Illumination has been making waves in animation, where, often, the likes of Disney, Pixar, and Dreamworks hold a grip on the market.
However, the new film adds to the likes of its other massive franchises, “Despicable Me” and “Minions.”
The Mario movie’s success could be due to its wider audience, as The Hollywood Reporter noted that 60% of all ticket sales were to viewers between the ages of 18-34.
Industry analyst for Comscore, Paul Dergarabedian, shared with The Hollywood Reporter that the opening far outpaced the projections made for the film prior to its release.
“This is one of the biggest box office over-performances in recent memory and is absolutely shattering all pre-release projections,” Dergarabedian said. “Mario officially says ‘game over’ to the video game movie adaptation curse.”
The film industry has been working to bounce back after the pandemic disrupted, and left a crater in how the world watches movies.
Dergarabedian shared last fall that the industry was bouncing back after numerous movies were held at the beginning of 2020 and then quickly released in bunches as things began to reopen. This caused a supply chain issue that he says needed to be corrected over time.
“It’s supply chain dynamics, and we talk about supply chain as related to widgets and hard goods, but it’s certainly playing into this situation,” Dergarabedian said.
However, even in a world of streaming, Degarbadian shared that the success of films released last summer showed people would return to the theaters, and now “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has helped prove his point.
“Have things changed? Certainly, they have. Are there challenges for movie theaters? No question. But I think movie theater is here to stay, but how consumers look at the movie theater experience,” Dergarabedian said.
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