The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Hits Unprecedented Box Office Milestone

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The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is soaring into the stratosphere.

Illumination’s latest movie, a follow-up to last year’s popular The Super Mario Bros. Movie, is based on the famous Nintendo video game series. The film features many of the original voice actors – Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jack Black – and welcomes new stars like Brie Larson, Donald Glover, Benny Safdie, and Glen Powell. Although it didn’t open quite as strongly as the first movie’s $146.4 million debut, its $131.7 million opening weekend was still the biggest of the year so far.

According to Variety, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is expected to reach a total of $629 million worldwide by the end of its second weekend in theaters. Of that amount, $308 million has come from North American theaters, making it the top-grossing movie of the year in the US so far, and another $321 million from international showings. This achievement makes it the first Hollywood film of 2023 to surpass $600 million globally, and only the 207th movie ever to reach that level of success.

This success means the upcoming Super Mario Galaxy Movie (scheduled for 2026) is likely to soon become the highest-grossing film of the year, surpassing the Chinese comedy Pegasus 3. Pegasus 3 was a surprising hit, earning $641 million when most English-language films hadn’t yet reached $250 million in ticket sales.

With just 12 days in cinemas, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is quickly approaching a major achievement and is predicted to earn over $1 billion globally, similar to the first film which made $1.36 billion. If it reaches this goal, it will be the 16th animated movie ever to surpass $1 billion, and only the fifth not produced by Disney, joining Super Mario Bros., Ne Zha 2 ($2.216 billion), Minions ($1.159 billion), and Despicable Me 3 ($1.035 billion).

The movie is already performing well financially, having earned enough to cover its costs. Blockbuster films usually need to make two and a half times their production budget to become profitable, because theaters take half of the ticket revenue and marketing isn’t included in the initial budget. Even though Super Mario Galaxy was expensive to make, with a reported budget of $110 million, it likely only needed to earn $275 million to break even – and it’s already reached that point in North America.

Despite mostly negative reviews – critics gave The Super Mario Bros. Movie a 43% score on Rotten Tomatoes – audiences loved it, giving it an 89% rating. This strong audience response, reflected in its ‘Verified Hot’ status on Rotten Tomatoes, suggests the film will likely continue to do well in theaters, driven by positive word-of-mouth. While it’s not performing as strongly as the first Mario movie, its current success makes a sequel very likely to be announced soon.

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2026-04-12 18:19