The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is off to a huge start at the box office.
Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal scored the best-ever April Wednesday with $34 million, which tops the $33.1 million opening day for Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary and also beats the $31.7 million opening day posted by 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Before the record opening, early projections pointed to around $175 million domestic over five days and another $175 million overseas, which would put the global launch near $350 million.
Super Mario Galaxy Movie Opens Bigger Than The First Film
That makes the sequel the biggest launch of the year right out of the gate.
The first Super Mario Bros. Movie opened to $146.3 million over three days and $204.6 million over five days during the 2023 Easter stretch. Now the sequel is tracking for around $175 million in the U.S. and Canada over five days, which would put it ahead of where the first movie started domestically over the same stretch.
Rotten Tomatoes Score Follows The Same Pattern
The Rotten Tomatoes scores tell a similar story to the first movie.
Critics are more mixed, while audiences are loving it. As of now, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie sits at 42% on Rotten Tomatoes with a 92% audience score. That is close to the same split seen with the first film, where critics were less enthusiastic but general audiences showed up in a big way.
That difference likely won’t matter much if families keep turning out through the weekend. The first Super Mario Bros. Movie finished with over $1.3 billion at the box office and showed that audience support can overpower mixed reviews, and Galaxy looks to be doing the same.
