Weekend Box Office: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie blasts off; The Drama performs strongly
Here we go! As expected, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie absolutely dominated the box office over the Easter holiday. Just like the first movie, it set box office records, easily delivering the biggest opening of the year to date. It’s also Illumination’s second-biggest opening of all time, just behind the original Super Mario Bros. Movie.
As we predicted, it didn’t quite measure up to the original, falling shy of the $200 million mark over the holiday weekend. Still, it came pretty close, grossing $130.9 million over the weekend and $190 million over the five-day holiday (the final numbers will be in tomorrow).
Strong numbers despite slightly lower audience score
While the A-minus CinemaScore suggests audiences aren’t liking this Nintendo sequel quite as much as they did the original, these numbers are still staggering. One can expect plenty more Super Mario movies from Illumination, with a new sequel likely to be announced at CinemaCon in Vegas next week.
Project Hail Mary holds strong in second place
Second place went to Amazon/MGM’s blockbuster Project Hail Mary. It made $30.6 million, which is only a 43% decline from last week. Word of mouth has propelled it to a $217.1 million gross, with it likely to finish its stateside run well north of $320 million.
Another original movie, A24’s divisive The Drama, performed stronger than expected, grossing $14.3 million. While the big twist is setting social media on fire, audiences didn’t seem to mind, with it earning a decent B CinemaScore rating—higher than many predicted. It’s performing about on par with Zendaya’s last headlined film, Challengers.
Hoppers drops as competition heats up
As expected, Pixar’s Hoppers fell off pretty strongly at the box office due to competition from Super Mario. It made $5.8 million for a $149 million total. It should end its run in the $170 million range, which is a fair result for a Pixar original these days—if not quite a blockbuster.
The Colleen Hoover adaptation Reminders of Him also did decent business, rounding out the top five with $2.2 million and a $45 million total.
Lower-tier releases and holdovers
The faith-based A Great Awakening did good business in semi-wide release, making $2.1 million. Last week’s horror bomb They Will Kill You had a terrible 61% drop in week two, earning only $1.9 million for an $8.7 million total. Following their charmed run last year, this marks the second huge bomb for Warner Bros. after The Bride.
The Bollywood movie Dhurandhar: The Revenge made another $1.8 million for a $26 million domestic gross (huge for a Bollywood release), while the Radio Silence sequel Ready or Not 2: Here I Come started to wrap up its theatrical run with $1.8 million for a middling $20 million total. It’ll likely do better on streaming.
Finally, the top 10 was rounded out by Scream 7, which—despite now being on digital—still cracked the top 10 with $915K and a record-breaking (for the franchise) $120 million total.
What did you watch this weekend?
What did you see this holiday weekend? Let us know in the comments!
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