Weekend Box Office Results: Super Mario Joins the Billion-Dollar Club

Weekend Box Office Results: Super Mario Joins the Billion-Dollar Club

Audiences appear to be saving their money for this weekend. Well, those without kids, that is, and younger kids at that — not those with adolescents who did not take them to one of the best-reviewed coming-of-age films in years. Boxing fans also had their fill with Creed III and decided not to take in the film that Sony hid from critics and practically the public as well. It was the final week of the spring season with Hollywood summer right around the corner, but all of the films between May and August will be playing for second place, and...

Audiences appear to be saving their money for this weekend. Well, those without kids, that is, and younger kids at that — not those with adolescents who did not take them to one of the best-reviewed coming-of-age films in years. Boxing fans also had their fill with Creed III and decided not to take in the film that Sony hid from critics and practically the public as well. It was the final week of the spring season with Hollywood summer right around the corner, but all of the films between May and August will be playing for second place, and it likely won’t even be close. King of the Crop: Super Mario Joins the Billion-Dollar Club One Billion Dollars. That is where The Super Mario Bros. Movie sits atop the global box office. Welcome to the club, Mario; it was bound to happen someday. The film is now the 52nd member of the club and just the fourth to achieve it since the start of the pandemic. How about this, though: $40.8 million is the sixth-best fourth weekend of all time; the two Avatars, Top Gun: Maverick, The Force Awakens, and Black Panther are the only films ahead of it. Depending on the final estimates, this could end up being the fifth-best fourth weekend ever, as Black Panther made $40.81 million. On top of that, $490.8 million is the 11th highest domestic total ever for a film after 26 days, $22 million behind its only animated superior, Incredibles 2, which only had a $28.4 million fourth weekend. Super Mario Bros. bested that by over $12 million this weekend. That could put Mario on a pace to reach $600 million domestic. Name the summer movie this season that is going to top that. You can’t. Rotten Returns: Big George Foreman Goes Down without a Fight You may not have heard, but Sony released Big George Foreman this weekend. Those who did hear managed to make the film $3 million, which wasn’t even good enough to reach the top 10. Instead, it joined an exclusive list of the worst per-theater-averages for a film released in over 3,000 theaters. The new list is as follows: Reminiscence** ($597), Copshop* ($771), Those Who Wish Me Dead** ($888), The Rhythm Section ($891), Big George Foreman * ($982), Dear Evan Hansen* ($1,065), Babylon* ($1,078), King Richard* ($1,086), Hoot ($1,116), Cry Macho** ($1,116), Firestarter (2022)** ($1,122), The Seeker: The Dark Is Rising ($1,192), Gretel and Hansel ($1,237), Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody* ($1,314), Bros* ($1,449), The Many Saints of Newark* ($1,462), The 355* ($1,470), Malignant** ($1,559), Ron’s Gone Wrong* ($1,624), Easter Sunday* ($1,716)
The asterisks signal those films that were pandemic or post-pandemic releases, with double asterisks indicating that a title was also available day-and-date on streaming. You will notice that Sony’s last attempt at a biopic with an elongated title, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody, is also on the list with a PTA of $1,314. Laika’s animated Missing Link is the only other pre-pandemic release (not counting re-releases) to open in 3,000 theaters and have a PTA under $2,000. As for Big George Foreman, the $32 million production is immediately going into the loss column. The Top 10 and Beyond: Evil Dead, Judy Blume, and John Wick Pose Little Threat to Mario There were more disappointing returns this weekend with Lionsgate’s release of Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret . The Kelly Fremon Craig adaptation of Judy Blume’s seminal novel grossed just $6.8 million over the weekend. Heads up to all Tomatometer watchers; the film is Certified Fresh at 99% with critics. That’s a nice companion number to Craig’s last film, 2016’s The Edge of Seventeen with Hailee Steinfeld, which maintains a 94% and opened to just $4.7 million and finished with $14.4 million. Remember these numbers the next time you wonder why we can’t get nice things. The film’s ridiculous PG-13 rating from the MPAA may not have...