"The Super Mario Bros Movie" Powers Up Audiences at the Box Office & on Digital Platforms

In terms of top-grossing Wednesday openers, the month of April has never been a super place to launch a movie. That is, until now with The Super Mario Bros Movie. With a fantastic Wednesday domestic single-day debut gross of $31,702,735, the film then scored a monumental weekend that outpaced even the most optimistic projections.

Its performance is a testament to the perfectly executed marketing and release strategy that enabled the film to power up to the No. 1 spot at the domestic box office with a three-day weekend debut of $146,361,865 and a five-day gross of $204,630,730, which is the best-ever opening 5-day domestic opening performance (see chart below). Mario also took the No. 1 spot internationally with a weekend cume of $170,949,000 including previews, for a grand weekend global total of $376 million!

The dream team of Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo has mounted a superb marketing, distribution, and release plan and the results are impressive. With a film that delivers a perfect PG family fun in the multiplex experience, The Super Mario Bros Movie proves that there is nothing like a fun romp at the movie theater with the entire family and it’s a relative bargain to boot!

Universal has yet another hit on its hands as this Mario has proven itself to be a full-blown four-quadrant movie by appealing to today's kids as well as grown-ups who may have had their first gaming experience with these iconic characters; it certainly 'leveled up' the feelings of fondness and nostalgia and thus the box office results for the film and it has a wide-open marketplace until Disney’s presentation of “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” opens on May 5.

Comscore Box Office Essentials
Sorted by Opening Wednesday - Sunday 5-day Gross - Does not include films that opened on a Tuesday like 2019's "Spider-Man: Far From Home"

The word-of-mouth power of The Super Mario Bros Movie is strong, as can be seen online. Several days after its release, the movie was still ranking among the top 10 Wikipedia articles. Articles about films in general, like the list of American films this year, have also been holding strong in April, showing that people are interested in what’s playing on the silver screen.

The success of The Super Mario Bros Movie speaks to a greater theme we’re seeing in media where video game adaptations are driving strong performances, like The Last of Us. When an adaptation is able to appeal to the highly-engaged gaming audience and be an interesting or fun enough concept to pull others in as well, it’s a recipe for success.

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Sources:

1. Comscore Social, Content Pulse, posts mentioning “mario” AND “movie”, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, April 1-11, 2023, in-platform numbers as of April 12, 2023.
2. Comscore Social, Content Pulse, posts mentioning “dungeons and dragons” AND “movie”, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, April 1-11, 2023, in-platform numbers as of April 12, 2023.

*Actions - The total number of engagements (reactions, shares, comments, retweets, favorites, loves) the specified property receives during the defined time period