The Super Mario Bros Movie scored the best second weekend ever for an animated movie in North American theatres with US$87 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates on Sunday (Apr 16).
According to CNA, the family-friendly Universal release dropped a slim 41 per cent from its record-making opening weekend.
With US$94 million from international showings, Mario’s global total now stands at a staggering US$678 million, surpassing Ant-Man And The Wasp: Quantumania to become the biggest film of 2023 in just two weekends.
Mario faced little major competition this weekend even with a slew of new national releases including Renfield, The Pope’s Exorcist, Mafia Mamma and the animated Suzume. It still has two weekends before Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol 3 flies into theatres to jumpstart the summer moviegoing season.
Sony and Screen Gem’s R-rated The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe as the late Father Gabriele Amorth – the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome from 1986 to his death at 91 in 2016 – fared the best. It made an estimated US$9.2 million from 3,178 locations.
Third place went to John Wick: Chapter 4 in its fourth weekend with US$7.9 million. The Lionsgate action pic has now made over US$160.1 million domestically.
Universal’s Renfield, the supernatural thriller starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as the title character, opened in fourth place with US$7.7 million.
Ben Affleck’s Air Jordan origin story Air rounded out the top five, with US$7.7 million in its second weekend to bring its total domestic earnings to US$33.3 million.
Makoto Shinkai’s PG-rated anime Suzume, released domestically by Sony with both dubbed and subtitled versions available, opened in 2,170 theatres and grossed an estimated US$5 million in ticket sales.
A24 also debuted its new Ari Aster mind-bender Beau Is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, in four theatres in New York and Los Angeles where it made US$320,396 over the weekend, boasting many sold out showings. The three-hour odyssey from the director of horror favourites Hereditary and Midsommar expands nationwide on Friday.
