Well, guess we know who wins THAT argument at the next Smash planning meeting.
Mario's animated big screen debut has been a record breaker at the box office.
Early weekend returns for the Nintendo / Illumination collaboration have it tracking for a box office take of US$146.36m for its opening weekend in the United States, with a total take of $204.6m since its launch according to sources at Illumination parent company Universal. This represents the third largest Easter weekend launch ever (trailing 2016's Batman v Superman at $181m and 2015's Fast 7 at $161m), the largest total ever recorded for a five day release (beating 2009's Transformers: Age of the Fallen) and more than doubling the record for a video game adaptation's opening weekend (2022's Sonic the Hedgehog 2 at $71.6m).
With international totals included, the Super Mario Bros movie now has the highest gross ever for an animated film's opening weekend worldwide as well; the new record estimate being $377.2m, and this three weeks before it launches in Japan.
