Universal, and Illumination’s animated “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” debuted with $190M over the five-day holiday weekend — the fourth biggest opening of all time.
The worldwide total is expected to reach $373M by Sunday evening, $14M short of the $387M earned by the original in 2023. These massive numbers were achieved despite poor reviews, including a 36 on Metacritic.
Comscore indicates that nearly two-thirds of the U.S. movie audience were infrequent visitors—attending only 2–3 times a year or less. Since this segment has largely declined since the pandemic, their return is seen as a welcome boost for theaters.
Meanwhile, “Project Hail Mary” came in second with an additional $40M over the five-day period, bringing its domestic total to $217M and its worldwide total to $420M. I now believe a $650–$700M total is possible for this movie. Its box office legs have been incredible.