The Super Mario Bros. movie is already a huge hit. The new animated film from Nintendo and Universal’s Illumination debuted over the long holiday weekend and grossed $204 million at the domestic box office, with $146 million taking in the usual three-day weekend. Factoring in international cash register, The Super Mario Bros. movie has already earned more than $377 million.
These impressive totals mean that The Super Mario Bros. movie now has the second-highest three-day weekend opening of any animated film domestically The incredible things 2is $182 million. Mario did even better internationally, becoming the biggest opening of an animated film in the world, breaking the previous record of $358 million Frozen 2.
This also makes Mario the biggest release of 2023, outperforming Disney and Marvel’s Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania — a movie that seemed to be a bit of a disappointment for the juggernaut of the superhero franchise. To break the record, The Super Mario Bros. movie also earned the top spot as the biggest opening for a video game movie ever, besting Sonic the Hedgehog2is $72 million.
While Illumination is no stranger to massive openings and blockbusters, having previously animated the films Despicable Me and Minions, Mario was also the biggest opening Universal’s animation studio has ever earned.
Neither Illumination nor Nintendo have officially said anything about a sequel to The Super Mario Bros. movie not yet, but with such an impressive debut already, and a box office total likely to soar in the coming weeks, it seems likely that a return to the Mushroom Kingdom for moviegoers is on the horizon.