The Super Mario Bros. Movie raced to #1 as expected, scoring $146.36M over three days, but this project was released early on Wednesday to get ahead of the Easter holiday and to take advantage of Spring Break. Over five days, it made $204.6M. Globally, Super Mario sets a record for an animated opening with $377.2M. In the U.S./Canada, it trails behind The Incredibles 2. Some are eyeing this to be a $1 billion movie, and this strong opening seems to indicate that this is a real possibility. For the record, this is now the biggest opening of 2023, besting Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
How are audiences reacting? They love it! Those polled by PostTrak gave it a 94% positive, while CinemaScore viewers gave it an A. Its Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 96%. But are audiences biased because of nostalgia? Maybe. Critics aren’t as keen on the film, to say the least, with its RT score sitting at a pretty terrible 56%.
Nostalgia fueled its box office numbers as well, as Super Mario isn’t only drawing families. Older folks who grew up playing Nintendo turned out for evening screenings, helping to push its gross higher, something that many animated pictures can’t deliver.
Just like Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last week, Super Mario also benefited from taking over all premium screens (Dolby, IMAX, etc.). Thirty-eight percent of its gross came from those.
D&D really suffered from losing those big screens. On the flip side, despite losing those premium theaters to D&D last weekend, with the positive buzz and dedication of its fan base, John Wick: Chapter 4 stayed in the #2 spot with $14.6M just narrowly besting D&D which generated $14.5M. D&D dropped to #3, despite also getting strong reactions from viewers. It appears that, as I speculated last weekend, too many non-fans of the tabletop game view this film as simply not being for them.
The race for second, third, and fourth place was neck-and-neck. As mentioned, John Wick only topped D&D by $.1M. The gap between D&D and the #4 movie was smaller.
D&D just barely edged out Ben Affleck’s Air about the creation of Nike’s Air Jordan shoes. Unlike Super Mario, critics and audiences are aligned on this one. Its RT critical score is 92%, and its audience score is 98%. Exiting audiences gave it an A CinemaScore and 93% positive via PostTrak.
Air made $14.46M. As is usual, these are projections. Once all the numbers are tallied, John Wick, Air, and D&D could all switch positions.
As was the case when John Wick opened, clearly Super Mario was the main attraction with the vast majority of tickets being sold for that. While #2, #3, and #4 were in close competition, the gap between #4 and #5 was much larger. Scream VI managed to round out the Top 5, but only with $3.31M.
Top Five:
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- Super Mario Bros Movie (Universal/Illumination) – 3-day $146.36M/ 5-day $204.6M/ Wk 1
- John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate) – 3-day $14.6M/ Total $147M/ Wk 3
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount/eOne) – 3-day $14.5M/ Total $62.2M/ Wk 2
- Air (Amazon) – 3-day $14.46M/ 5-day $20.2M/ Wk 1
- Scream VI (Paramount) – 3-day $3.31M/ Total $103.8M/ Wk 5
Super Mario should have no problem holding onto the #1 spot next weekend. A few smaller movies are opening and could mix up the Top Five a little, including the straight horror pic The Pope’s Exorcist and the horror spoof Renfield.
Did you check out The Super Mario Bros. Movie this weekend? What did you think?
