‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Eyes Massive $370M Opening
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is contributing in a major way to the much-needed spring bloom at the box office, where the family friendly tentpole opened an estimated $372.5 million globally, the biggest showing since James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash unfurled in theaters over Christmas 2025. And it is by far the top opening of 2026 so far among Hollywood titles.
The sequel opened to an estimated $190.1 domestically over the five-day Easter corridor, including a three-day weekend gross of $130.9 million. Overseas, Galaxy blasted off with an estimated $182.4 million from 80 markets.
Hitting theaters over the Easter corridor in 2023, the first Mario Bros. Movie posted a five-day domestic debut of $204 million, including a three-day weekend haul of $147 million, one of the best showings of all time for holiday. Galaxy also joins the upper reaches of that list.
Super Mario Galaxy is achieving a number other milestones, including delivering the year’s biggest three-day opening of the year so not only in North America, but overseas and globally (a record held briefly by sleeper hit Project Hail Mary).
Other records and milestones: one of the biggest worldwide openings ever for an animated film and the fourth-biggest among Hollywood titles alongside Zootopia 2, Moana 2 and Super Mario.
Other worldwide highlights include the franchise having now delivered the two biggest global openings ever for a video game adaptation, as well as marking Universal’s fifth-biggest global opening ever behind Super Mario.
Among its domestic achievements: Super Mario Galaxy scored the third-highest grossing weekend for a video game adaptation behind A Minecraft Movie and Super Mario; it is the only animated franchise to have two titles open to more than $100 over a three-day weekend besides Shrek, Toy Story and Minions; and delivered the biggest five-day domestic launch since Disney’s Moana 2.
Super Mario Galaxy was graced with an A-CinemaScore from audiences despite being snubbed by many critics. The 2023 pic received an A and quickly became a box office sensation on its way to topping out at $1.36 billion globally and delivering a marquee new franchise for Universal, Illumination and Nintendo.
The Universal-owned Illumination partnered with Nintendo in bringing the adaptation of the family friendly video game to the big screen. The follow-up tells the story of Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach once again taking on the evil Bowser (this time along with his son, Bowser Jr.) in an adventure that spans the galaxy and introduces new characters including Princess Rosalina and Nintendo icon Yoshi.
Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary, now in its third weekend, is continuing to do remarkable business despite losing Imax and premium-large formats to Super Mario Galaxy. The Ryan Gosling-led blockbuster fell only 43 percent in its third outing to $30.6 million from 3,902 cinemas as it celebrated a key milestone in passing up the $200 million mark at the domestic box office to finish Easter Sunday with a North American cume of $217.2 million. The movie has been the first major theatrical win for Amazon MGM.
Zendaya and Robert Pattinson’s edgy The Drama — definitely not an Easter offering for families — is reporting a third-place finish with an estimated $14.1 million from 3,097 locations. The A24 title, has been shrouded in mystery, earned a B CinemaScore and a, but not spectacular, audience score on Rotten Tomatoes.
More to come.
April 5, 7:35: Updated with revised estimates.
This story was originally published April 4 at 11:15 a.m..