There is just no stopping Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has now not only shattered the box office opening record for video game adaptations but is also now Illumination’s biggest opening weekend ever. Estimates stand at $137 million 3-day and a staggering $195 million 5-day opening in North America for Easter weekend from 4,343 theaters
The 3-day total is nearly double the previous video game opening record set last year by “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” with $72.1 million and beats Illumination’s all-time 3-day opening of $115 million set by “Minions” in 2015 and 5-day record set by “Despicable Me 2” with $143 million.
Combine that projected $195 million extended opening with $173 million from overseas, and “Super Mario Bros.” has scored an incredible global opening of $368 million.
As the first family film in theaters since “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” back during the holidays, “Super Mario Bros.” already had an enormous audience base to draw from during this Easter weekend. But that has also been boosted by several generations worth of gamers eager to see the Mario games they grew up playing on N64s, Gamecubes and Wiis brought to the big screen with Illumination’s blockbuster animation style.
And while critics felt that the movie had nothing to offer those who aren’t kids or gamers with a 56% Rotten Tomatoes score, the high-pressure stream of references and gags had audiences gushing with a 97% audience score and an A on CinemaScore.
With a full month between now and the release of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3,” the only question at this point is whether the film will pass the $939.6 million total of fellow Illumination film “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to become the highest grossing animated film since theaters reopened.
Meanwhile, Amazon Studios’ “Air” is doing respectably as counterprogramming to “Mario” for older audiences, with the studio projecting an $18.5 million 5-day opening that hits the upper end of pre-release projections for a $16-19 million extended launch.
Starring, directed and produced by Ben Affleck through his production company Artists Equity, “Air” tells the origin story of Nike’s Air Jordans and has received very strong critical and audience reception with Rotten Tomatoes scores of 93% critics and 98% audience alongside an A on CinemaScore.
On the flipside, Paramount/eOne’s “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” is taking the heavy hit to its second weekend total that was expected from general audiences flocking to “Mario.” The fantasy film is currently set for a $13.6 million weekend total, a 63% drop from the film’s $37.2 million opening and below the $14.3 million third weekend total of Lionsgate’s “John Wick: Chapter 4.”
With a 10-day total of $61.2 million domestic, there’s still a chance for “Dungeons & Dragons” to leg out from its very strong word-of-mouth and turn a profit against its $150 million production budget, but the road out of the red is getting narrower.
More to come…
