It’s a hit: ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ box office blasts off

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Yoshi, voiced by Donald Glover, left, Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, center, and Luigi, voiced by Charlie Day, in a scene from “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” Nintendo and Illumination/Universal Pictures via AP

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By Lindsey Bahr

the associated press

Mixed reviews didn’t dissuade mass audiences from buying tickets to the “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which scored the biggest opening of the year for a Hollywood movie. The Illumination and Nintendo co-production earned $130.9 million over the weekend and $190.1 million in its first five days in North American theaters, according to estimates Sunday.

Universal Pictures released the sequel globally on Wednesday, capitalizing spring break vacations in the week leading up to Easter. With an estimated $182.4 million from 80 overseas markets, the film is looking at a $372.5 million debut — the latest hit for the PG rating. Mexico is leading the international bunch with $29.1 million from 5,136 screens, followed by the U.K. and Ireland.

The animated sequel, Illumination CEO Christopher Meledandri’s 16th movie in 16 years, is the industry’s biggest debut since “Avatar: Fire and Ash” launched over Christmas. The Chinese movie “Pegasus 3,” which was not a Motion Picture Association release, has the slight edge for the 2026 global record, however.

It’s also a dip from the first film, which opened to $204 million domestically during the same five-day time frame in 2023 ($147 of that was from Friday, Saturday and Sunday). “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” went on to be the second biggest movie of 2023, with over $1.3 billion in box office receipts.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” which features returning voice actors Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy and Charlie Day, had a massive footprint in the U.S. and Canada, where it played in 4,252 theaters, including 421 IMAX and 1,345 premium large format screens. It made $15 million from the IMAX screens alone.

“It’s exactly the kind of broad, crowd-pleasing release that brings people into theaters,” AMC Chairman and CEO Adam Aron said in a statement.

It also cost around $110 million to make, not including marketing and promotion expenses. But it arrived on a wave of less-than-stellar reviews. Its Rotten Tomatoes score is currently sitting at a lousy 40%. Ticket buyers were more enthusiastic.