‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ soars to the top spot at the box office

by

The movie theaters had a great weekend, thanks to continued strong performance from family films, especially “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”

Universal Pictures, Nintendo, and Illumination’s new animated movie earned $190 million in the U.S. and Canada over the five-day holiday weekend, making it the top film, according to studio estimates and data from Comscore. This result matched predictions of a $186 million opening domestically.

Globally, the film earned $372.5 million, the largest opening so far in 2026.

In 2023, the first movie adaptation of the popular video game series, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” earned $146.4 million during its opening weekend.

As a huge Nintendo fan, I was really excited about “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.” It’s a continuation of the adventures we all know and love with Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach, and this time, their mission is to save Princess Rosalina. The studio clearly invested a lot – the film had a $110 million budget – so I’m hoping for something truly spectacular!

Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” earned $30.7 million domestically this weekend, bringing its total earnings to $217 million. It was the second highest-grossing film, following only one other movie. “The Drama” from A24 came in third with $14.4 million, while Disney’s “Hoppers” ($5.8 million) and Universal’s “Reminders of Him” ($2.2 million) completed the top five at the box office.

The strong opening of “Mario” this weekend shows once again how well family movies perform in theaters.

This year, animated films have been a big success at the box office. Movies like Sony’s “Goat” and the Disney-Pixar collaboration “Hoppers” have done well, and Disney’s “Zootopia 2” – released in 2025 – continues to be a massive hit, earning over $1.87 billion globally.

Overall, movie theaters had a much better first quarter this year, with revenue increasing by over 20% compared to the first quarter of 2025. March was a particularly successful month, largely thanks to the huge box office numbers for “Project Hail Mary.”

Read More

2026-04-06 02:31