Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” added $48 million to its domestic box office total on Good Friday, putting it on course for an excellent 5-day North American opening weekend of $188 million and a worldwide opening of $370 million
While the domestic start is roughly 8% below the Easter weekend record $204.6 5-day opening of the film’s 2023 predecessor “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” it is still enough to put the “Mario” franchise in a rare club of animated franchises that have posted multiple $100 million-plus opening weekends.
The only other three to do so are DreamWorks’ “Shrek,” Illumination’s “Despicable Me” and Disney’s “Frozen,” and “Mario” is the only franchise with multiple global openings of more than $350 million.
The $370 million global total also nearly matches the $377 million global start of “Super Mario Bros.,” with a release in Japan still to come on April 24. With this start, “Super Mario Galaxy” should easily become the first $1 billion-plus hit of 2026, having secured the highest opening weekend since “Avatar: Fire and Ash” this past December.
The top 5 international markets for “Super Mario Galaxy” have all posted opening weekends of more than $10 million, with Mexico being the leading market with a whopping $29.1 million 5-day start. That is the fourth highest Mexican opening ever for a Hollywood film, standing only behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Avengers: Endgame” and “Inside Out 2.” The U.K., Germany, France and Spain round out the top 5.
Beyond the Mushroom Kingdom, Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” is holding quite well in its third weekend despite the massive competition. For the 3-day period, the film is pacing to make just under $30 million, pushing its domestic total to $216 million and becoming the first Amazon theatrical release to pass the $200 million mark.
In third is the other new release of the weekend, A24’s “The Drama,” which is looking at a solid opening weekend of $13.3 million from 3,084. The pitch-black comedy-drama stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson as a couple days away from getting married whose relationship hits sudden and extreme turbulence when a shocking secret is revealed.
With its dark subject matter and deliberately unsettling tone, “The Drama” was always a film unlikely to receive glowing audience reviews but is still being received generally well with a 79% critics and 84% audience Rotten Tomatoes score and a B on CinemaScore.
