Super Mario Bros. Holds Off Horror Reboot

Hit film is the highest-grossing animated release since the pandemic began
By Newser Editors and Wire Services
Posted Apr 23, 2023 12:40 PM CDT
Super Mario Bros. Closes In on $1B Take
This image released by Nintendo and Universal Studios shows Mario, voiced by Chris Pratt, left, and Princess Peach, voiced by Anya Taylor-Joy, in Nintendo's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."   (Nintendo and Universal Studios via AP)

The Super Mario Bros. Movie continued to rack up coins at the box office, leading ticket sales for the third straight weekend, as the animation hit neared $1 billion after just 18 days in theaters. The weekend's top new release, the horror reboot Evil Dead Rise debuted solidly, launching with $23.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. But that was no match for Universal Pictures' The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which grossed $58.2 million in its third weekend. The movie is setting a torrid pace for an animated movie. It became the highest-grossing animated released of the pandemic era, with domestic ticket sales up to $434.3 million through Sunday and a global tally of $871.1 million, the AP reports.

When The Super Mario Bros. Movie passes $1 billion worldwide, it will be just the fourth film of the pandemic era to reach that benchmark, following Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun Maverick and Avatar: The Way of Water. Evil Dead Rise, from Warner Bros. and New Line, is the fifth installment (and first in a decade) in the thriller franchise that Sam Raimi began with this 1981 ultra-low-budget classic, Evil Dead. Though Raimi’s subsequent and much-adored films starring Bruce Campbell grew increasingly slapstick, marrying comedy and horror, the 2013 reboot and Evil Dead Rise (with Raimi as an executive producer) rely on chillier frights.

Below are estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at US and Canadian theaters, according to Comscore:

  1. Super Mario Bros, $58.2 million.
  2. Evil Dead Rise, $23.5 million.
  3. The Covenant, $6.3 million.
  4. John Wick: Chapter 4, $5.8 million.
  5. Air, $5.5 million.
  6. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, $5.4 million.
  7. The Pope's Exorcist, $3.3 million.
  8. Renfield, $3.1 million.
  9. Beau Is Afraid, $2.7 million.
  10. Suzume, $1.6 million.
(More box office stories.)

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