It trails only the two ‘Frozen’ movies.
Even though it’s out on VOD, Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie is continuing to break box office records. This weekend, the mega-hit video game adaptation added around $10 million at the domestic box office, finishing third behind new release Fast X and holdover hit Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. And after a month-and-a-half in theaters, Super Mario is passing major milestones domestically and globally. The film has made around $550 million stateside, and just under $700 million from overseas territories, for a running worldwide total of $1.248 billion, per The Hollywood Reporter.
This means that Super Mario has overtaken Incredibles 2’s $1.243 billion global haul to become the third-biggest animated movie of all time at the global box office. Super Mario is now only trailing the two Frozen movies. Released in 2013, the first Frozen made $1.284 billion worldwide — a figure that Super Mario could realistically overtake. And six years later, Frozen 2 finished its worldwide run with $1.45 billion.
Along the way, Super Mario shot past iconic animated hits such as Toy Story 3 ($1.068 billion), the original The Lion King ($986 million), and Finding Nemo ($936 million), as well as every Shrek and Ice Age movie, not to mention every Despicable Me and Pixar title. Super Mario is also the biggest film in Illumination Entertainment’s catalog, joining Minions ($1.157 billion) and Despicable Me 3 ($1.032 billion) in the animation studio’s billion-dollar club. Illumination has also released two other movies that have grossed more than $900 million globally — Despicable Me 2 ($975 million) and Minions: The Rise of Gru ($939 million).
Super Mario has been breaking box office records ever since it debuted in the first week of April. It was supposed to gross around $130 million in its five-day extended weekend, but ended up making $204 million. Super Mario dominated the box office for the entire month, before being dethroned by Guardians of the Galaxy 3 in May. The movie worked despite so-so reviews because it served not just the young children who hadn’t had a film targeted at them since December’s Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, but also their nostalgia-hungry parents, who probably grew up with these characters.
Super Mario, of course, is based on the popular video game franchise that was previously adapted into a doomed live-action movie starring Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo in 1993. The success of the animated movie can also be counted as a much-needed win for video game adaptations in general. The audience has famously had a hot-and-cold relationship with these movies, but everybody seems to be pleased with how Super Mario turned out. The film’s $1.24 billion worldwide gross is essentially three times what the previous top-grossing video game adaptation — Warcraft — ended its run with.
It’s also another win for star Chris Pratt, who voices everybody's favorite plumber. Pratt has led popular franchises such as Jurassic World, Guardians of the Galaxy, and The Lego Movie in the past. He’s joined by Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Jack Black and Fred Armisen in the film's cast. You can watch out interview with Pratt and Day here, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.
Rahul Malhotra is a Weekend News Writer for Collider. From Francois Ozon to David Fincher, he’ll watch anything once. Swing and a miss>Measured victory. Also, #JusticeForHan. (He/Him).
