The second weekend of 'Super Mario Bros.Movie' made $87 million, which was a record

Studio figures from Sunday show that 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' had the best second weekend for an animated movie ever in North America, with $87 million in ticket sales. The family-friendly movie from Universal dropped only 41% from its record-breaking first weekend.

With $94 million from foreign showings, "Mario's" global total is now a staggering $678 million. This makes it the biggest movie of 2023, passing "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantum Mania" in just two weekends to become the biggest movie of 2023.

The chief media analyst for Comsore, Paul Dergarabedian, said, "There aren't enough words to describe how big this box office performance is."
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the biggest video game movie ever - Polygon
Most movies drop by about 60% in their second weekends, which makes "Mario's" 41% drop stand out. Comscore says that only a few movies that started with more than $100 million had less of a drop. These include "Shrek 2," "Frozen 2," "Spider-Man," "The Force Awakens," and "The Jungle Book" from 2016.

"To a casual observer, that may not seem like a big deal, but that is an important metric," Dergarabedian said. "It's the best sign of how much people like the movie."

"Mario" didn't have much big competition this weekend, even though there were a lot of new movies in theaters, like "Renfield," "The Pope's Exorcist," "Mafia Mamma," and the animated "Suzume." "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" won't start the summer movie season until it comes out two more weekends from now.

"The Pope's Exorcist," which was rated R and made by Sony and Screen Gem, did the best. Russell Crowe played the late Father Gabriele Amorth, who was the chief exorcist for the Diocese of Rome from 1986 until his death at age 91 in 2016. It is thought to have made $9.2 million from 3,178 places.

"John Wick: Chapter 4" took third place with $7.9 million in its fourth weekend. The action movie from Lionsgate has now made more than $160,1 million in the United States.

The supernatural thriller "Renfield," from Universal, started in fourth place with $7.8 million. Nicolas Cage played Dracula in the movie, and Nicholas Hoult played the title character.

Some people wondered if it was bad for "Renfield" and "The Pope's Exorcist" to come out the same weekend since they were both R-rated and in the same genre. But Dergarabedian said that even though the crowds may have been the same, "these films play for more than just one weekend."

"Air," the origin story of Air Jordan starring Ben Affleck, finished out the top five with $7.7 million in its second weekend, bringing its domestic total to $33.3 million.

"Suzume," an anime by Makoto Shinkai with a PG rating that was released in the U.S. by Sony with both dubbed and subtitled versions, opened in 2,170 screens and made about $5 million in ticket sales.

A24 also released "Beau is Afraid," a new R-rated movie by Ari Aster that stars Joaquin Phoenix. It opened in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles over the weekend, where it made $320,396 and had many sold-out showings. On Friday, the 3-hour odyssey from the director of the popular horror movies "Hereditary" and "Midsommar" goes national.

Dergarabedian said that "Beau's" average of almost $81,000 per screen is just as surprising as "Mario's" small drop, and that it is happening in a market with options for every kind of moviegoer.

Dergarabedian said, "It's one of the most varied lines-ups of movies I've seen on the marquee in years. In terms of depth and breadth of content, it's on par with a streaming service."

According to Comscore, this is the number of tickets that will be sold at cinemas in the U.S. and Canada from Friday to Sunday. Monday, the final home numbers will be made public.