Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic's The Super Mario Bros. Movie's most definitely crushed it in its opening weekend – but its remarkable success is not just being limited to what can be written off as a front-loaded start. While all of the biggest hits of the year thus far have all dealt with a weekend-to-weekend drop over over 50 percent following their debuts, the Nintendo feature has broken from that pattern.
Check out the full Top 10 below, and join me after for analysis.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie Drops Just 41 Percent From Its Opening Weekend
Since the return of movie-going after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down cinemas worldwide, a big problem facing blockbusters has been a repeating pattern of big openings followed by big drops – a result of the shrinking window between theatrical release and streaming/home video debut. The films released by Marvel Studios, for example, have made headlines because of their weekend-to-weekend issues since 2021 (Peyton Reed's Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania falling 70 percent earlier this year), but The Super Mario Bros. Movie has impressed by only dropping 41 percent compared to the numbers from its first Friday-to-Sunday.
The new movie based on the Nintendo franchise had a record-breaking $146.4 million domestic debut opening in the first weekend of March, and it has followed up that performance by adding another $87 million in ticket sales since Friday. That drop is even smaller than what Michael B. Jordan's Creed III did in early March, and all the more impressive because the numbers are much, much bigger.
The blockbuster has already become the biggest box office hit of the young year, having made $347.8 million (second place belongs to Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which has made $212.9 million in the United States and Canada and is still playing in 75 locations).
Not only is The Super Mario Bros. Movie the biggest movie of 2023 so far domestically, but it has also earned that title worldwide. It has made $678 million thus far, which puts it just ahead of Zhang Yimou's Full River Red, which made nearly all of its $673.6 million during its theatrical run in China.
In addition to performing well in the United States, the video game adaptation (according to The Numbers) has made $28 million in Mexico, $13.5 million in China, $19.5 million in the United Kingdom, $17.5 million in Germany, and $13 million in France. It will not get a theatrical release in Japan – the home of Nintendo – until the end of the month.
As will be discussed further very soon, what makes the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the last three days particularly notable is that it was accomplished during a very crowded weekend at the box office. Multiple new wide releases hit theaters (Universal Pictures even decided to complete with itself by releasing Chris McKay's Renfield), and the big franchise titles of March – including Chad Stahelski's John Wick: Chapter 4 and Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett's Scream VI – are still selling tickets.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie, however, is really the only title aiming at young kids, and as a result it was able to dominate the Top 10. And now that the big test of this weekend is out of the way, it may continue to dominate for the rest of the month. There are certainly some interesting titles still set to be released in April, but it's likely that the animated hit will retain its position as the number one movie in America until the arrival of James Gunn's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in May.
The Pope's Exorcist And Renfield Are Victims Of A Crowded Box Office In Their Debut Weekends
As far as studio scheduling is concerned, there were a few questionable decisions made this past weekend. For starters, there is a suggestion that the draw of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was underestimated, as the week following a major blockbuster release is typically lacking in major releases. And as for the films that were put in head-to-head competition, the aforementioned Renfield and Julius Avery's The Pope's Exorcist are both R-rated horror titles aimed at the same demographics.
The end result of these questionable logistical decisions? No title other than The Super Mario Bros. Movie was able to make over eight figures.
The Pope's Exorcist, which stars Russell Crowe, was the most successful of the non-Mario group, making an estimated $9.2 million – though it's still short of hitting its reported budget ($18 million, according to Variety). That's not a great outcome, but it is better than Renfield's situation. The movie has received a mostly positive response from critics, particularly highlighting the performance by Nicolas Cage, but it only brought in $7.8 million during its first three days of theatrical release (only good enough for fourth place), and it's a feature that was made with a $65 million budget.
We'll see what happens with these titles in the weeks ahead, but for now we're just left wondering if both films could have had better success if held for release in the fall during spooky season.
In Limited Release, Beau Is Afraid Puts Up New Indie Per-Screen Average Record For 2023
I'll lastly highlight the performance by Ari Aster's Beau Is Afraid this past weekend, though you'll note that the title is absent from the Top 10 chart above. This is because it only managed to make $320,396. That probably doesn't look like a lot in box office terms, but what makes that number stand out is the fact that it's ticket sales from just four locations.
Beau Is Afraid, Aster's follow-up to Hereditary and Midsommar, was given a very small debut in New York and Los Angeles, and the end result is a new indie record for 2023, according to Variety. The movie made a stunning $80,099 per theater – which is actually the second biggest average ever put up by an A24 release (Josh and Benny Safdie's Uncut Gems made made $107,448 on five screens in December 2019). How will the film do when it goes nationwide starting on Friday? It's hard to say, especially because it has been getting an extremely polarized response from critics and audiences.
In addition to Beau Is Afraid, this upcoming Friday will also see the arrival of Lee Cronin's Evil Dead Rise, Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, and Stephen Williams' Chevalier. Be sure to head back here next Sunday to learn where they end up placing in the Top 10, and check out our 2023 Movie Release Calendar to discover all of the films hitting theaters and streaming in the coming weeks and months.
