Weekend Box Office: The Super Mario Bros. Movie sees a record breaking $87 Million second weekend

When studio projections were first announced for The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s opening last week, the animated film was only expected to do about $87 million for the weekend. By Saturday that number had ballooned to $137 million, when final numbers were reported The Super Mario Bros. Movie had amassed $146.3 million. This weekend is seeing a similar progression for the plumbing brothers. By Saturday morning the hit film was expected to pull in $58 million for the weekend, by Saturday night that number hit $72 million and today The Super Mario Bros. Movie settles in on a $87 million second weekend representing the best second weekend ever for an animated film. I must toot my horn here as I predicted a second week in this range.

That number takes down the Frozen II’s $85.9 million and represents just a 41% decline. The films domestic cume is impressive enough, but its international numbers are really quite spectacular with it already nearing the $700 million mark after just two weeks of release. The film is proving to be critic proof as reviews have been more middle of the road, including a 6/10 from our own Chris Bumbray, while its audience score is 96%. With no big new animated films releasing until June, you can expect The Super Mario Bros. Movie to continue its stellar run for the foreseeable future.

The battle of the horror new releases fronted by Academy Award Winning Actors, Nicolas Cage’s Renfield and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist looks to be coming down to the wire, but in a bit of a surprise Crowe’s Pope’s Exorcist looks like the winner with $9.1 million against Renfield’s $7.77 million. I do wish Renfield had better numbers as I really enjoyed the film, it reminded me of the type of fun horror mash-up like a Zombieland. Even our own reviewers enjoyed the Nicolas Cage fronted film better than Crowe’s as Alex Maidy gave Renfield an 8/10 while Tyler Nichols gave Pope’s Exorcist a 6/10. I guess the supposed “true story” nature of the latter was more intriguing than seeing Nicolas Cage play Dracula, which, again, you should definitely see because it is everything you would expect it to be and so much more.

The Ben Affleck directed true story Air looks to have a solid hold in its second week with $7.72 million, representing a 47% decline. The $33.2 million domestic total may not seem like blockbuster numbers, but in a post pandemic world when adult oriented films have struggled to make a dent at the box office, thats pretty good. But that is what Amazon was counting on, this theatrical release is really just all gravy as this is just great advertising for when the film hits its streaming service in a few months. 

John Wick: Chapter 4 is also seeing a solid fourth week with $7.9 million and a $160.1 million domestic total. Pretty solid numbers for what really is one of the best action films ever made. Something our own JimmyO would attest to in his perfect 10/10 review of the film.

Next up on the list is Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves with $7.3 million followed by the Crunchyroll studios release of Suzume which saw a $5 million weekend. Not the biggest numbers we have seen from a Crunchyroll Studios release, but it is just the cherry on top of the cake for this film as it has already amassed record breaking numbers overseas. Rounding out the top ten are Mafia Mamma pulling in $2.04 million while Scream VI sees a $1.4 million weekend and the second devil possession new release of the week, Nefarious looks at $1.3 million.

Did you catch a movie in theaters this weekend? If so, let us know what you saw in the comments and don’t forget to take our poll where we ask: What is your favorite Vampire film?