THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE Looks to Jump Into Top-Grossing Spot for Studio
By Movieguide® Staff
Illumination’s THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE is expected to jump to the studio’s second best debut with nearly $100M in its first 3 days at the global box office.
According to Deadline, the studio projects that the video game adaptation will haul in nearly $150M over the Easter weekend.
Deadline reported:
That first-day result, which doesn’t include previews, is even higher than the first-day take of Paramount/Sega’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2, which minted a combined Thursday previews/Friday of $26.4M. The question this morning is whether this movie is front-loaded or not. If we’re eyeing the trajectory of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, it’s quite conceivable that Super Mario Bros Movie won’t be front-loaded: If you take out the $5M Thursday previews from Sonic 2‘s first day, Friday was $21.4M, with Saturday bursting +25% to $26.8M. Today, there’s 35% K-12 schools on spring break, with another 10% colleges off. That rises to 80% K-12 off for Good Friday, and 31% colleges on break.
A portion of Movieguide®’s review of THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE reads:
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023) is a new movie based on the iconic Nintendo video game about brothers Mario and Luigi, two plumbers from Brooklyn, New York. After Mario and Luigi find a green pipe in the sewers, they are transported into a different universe. The brothers end up getting separated, but both find themselves wrapped up in an evil plot by King Bowser. Bowser has seized a Super Star, which he plans to use to kidnap and marry Princess Peach, take over Mushroom Kingdom, and rule the world. Can Mario reunite with his brother Luigi and stop Bowser’s evil plot?
THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE (2023) has a strong moral message about brotherhood, sacrifice, and working together to overcome evil. The movie has breathtaking animation that honors its iconic source material while breathing new life into the large cast of characters from both Mario video games and other Nintendo games of the same universe. For Mario and Luigi, love for one another helps them overcome their deepest fears and stand up against Bowser and his army of Koopas, Goombas, and Piranha Plants. Due to some intense animated action/violence, Movieguide® advises caution for younger children.
With THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE’s success, Illumination would continue a strong run of animated, family-friendly movies. Building off last year’s successes like SING 2 and MINIONS: RISE OF GRU, studios know that morally uplifting themes are what succeed at the box office.
While Disney struggled in 2022 to reach audiences with agenda-driven stories like LIGHTYEAR and STRANGE WORLD, other studios like Illumination and Dreamworks are capitalizing with moral content fit for the world’s biggest audience: families.
Movieguide® previously reported on the Movieguide® Award-nominated Dreamwork’s movie, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH:
After one month in theaters, the Movieguide® Award-nominated adventure PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH clawed its way to the No. 2 spot at the box office, earning $11.5M over the Jan. 20 weekend.
The Dreamworks sequel to 2011’s PUSS IN BOOTS continues to outperform recent adult releases like MISSING (released Jan. 20, 2023) and M3GAN (released Jan. 6, 2023).
Although analysts of the 2022 box office assumed that family-friendly movies no longer attract large audiences, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH proves, once again, that content matters to families.
In 2022, Disney released movies like LIGHTYEAR and STRANG WORLD, which many expected would become tentpoles in animation for 2022.
However, audiences’ wallets told a different story.
If studios want to continue to make a splash at the box office, they should stick to family-friendly, morally uplifting projects like THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE, PUSS IN BOOTS: THE LAST WISH, and SING 2.
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