“Super Mario Galaxy Movie” First Day Box-Office

Universal Pictures, Illumination and Nintendo’s “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” has begun breaking records already.

The title has pulled in $34 million domestically on its opening day on Wednesday (there were no Tuesday previews). That’s the best opening day so far this year, beating the $33.1 million that “Project Hail Mary” landed (and that was a Friday with Thursday with previews combined).

In addition, it also bested the Wednesday opening of 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros Movie” at $31.7 million. That film went on to gross $146.3 million over three days and $204.6 million over five days.

Universal is currently projecting the sequel will come in lower at $129 million for the three-day and $186 million for the five-day. Critics weren’t high on either film but notably less so this one.

Audience scores so far are also slightly lower, but only a small drop. The audience Rotten Tomatoes score is at 91% compared to the 95% of the first film. The CinemaScore is at an ‘A-‘ compared to the first film’s ‘A’.

Budget-wise, the film was made quite frugally – coming in at a net production budget of $110 million – only $10 million more than the original’s $100 million. Marketing spend will likely be big.

Source: Deadline