Box office: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ approaches $500 million and enters all-time Top 20
The month of April comes to a close with a second weekend in which no new movies opened with more than $10 million. Even so, one single movie has dominated the month so heartily that “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has now entered the top 20 all-time domestic blockbusters in less than one month playing in theaters.
Sure enough, the Nintendo game adaptation won its fourth weekend in a row with an estimated $40 million, down 33% from last weekend, after hitting $450 million as of Thursday. With the $490 million it has made through Sunday, “Super Mario Bros.” passes 2019’s “Frozen II” and 2016’s “Finding Dory” to become the 19th-highest grossing movie domestically with $500 million in its sights in the coming days.
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“Super Mario Bros.” also became the first movie of 2023 to cross the $1 billion mark worldwide, adding another $68.3 million overseas, including $14.3 million in its Japan opening and $5.7 million in South Korea. With $1.02 billion grossed so far, the animated movie has had massive showings in places like Mexico with $73.2 million grossed so far, and the United Kingdom with $56.4 million.
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New Line’s “Evil Dead Rise” held up relatively well in its second weekend, maintaining second place with $12.2 million despite a 50% drop from its opening weekend. So far, it has grossed $44.4 million domestically, which makes it the fourth most successful movie for the month of April. It added another $14.2 million overseas this weekend for a global total of $86.5 million.
Many might feel that the adaptation of Judy Blume‘s 1970 bestseller, “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret,” deserved better than a third place opening with an estimated $6.8 million, especially with a hearty release by Lionsgate into 3,343 theaters. You really couldn’t do much better in terms of reviews with 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, backed by an “A” CinemaScore from audiences, but the coming-of-age dramedy starring Abby Ryder Fortson, Rachel McAdams, Kathy Bates and Benny Safdie, failed to make much of a mark, averaging just $2,034 per theater.
“John Wick: Chapter 4” is now officially the highest-grossing movie in that Keanu Reeves franchise, having passed “Chapter 3” over the weekend with another $5 million (down just 14%) to bring its domestic total to $176.2 million. Its worldwide total is also the best for the franchise with $369.2 million, a good sign for next year’s spin-off “Ballerina,” starring Ana de Armas.
Maybe a bigger surprise this weekend was the success of a 40th anniversary re-release of “Star Wars: Return of the Jedi” into 475 theaters, which would normally be a nominal release just to give movie theaters something to show. Instead, it made $1.8 million on Friday and an estimated $4.7 million for the weekend to take fifth place. It averaged almost $10,000 per theater, the only movie in the Top 10 to have a better per-theater average than “Super Mario Bros.”
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“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” took sixth place with $4.1 million in 2,709 theaters, down just 25% from last weekend, with $88.2 million grossed domestically in the past month.
Ben Affleck‘s “Air” has done well for Amazon Studios, and this weekend, it held up well with another $4 million (down 27%) to take seventh place with $47.6 million grossed domestically so far.
The Telugu-language historic epic “Ponniyin Selvan: Part II” brought in an estimated $3.8 million this weekend, which would be enough to open in eighth place, although that’s slightly less than “Part I” opened with last year.
“Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant,” starring Jake Gyllenhall, dropped 43% to $3.6 million for ninth place, with $12.3 million grossed so far.
The Finnish action-thriller “Sisu,” which Lionsgate released into 1,006 theaters on Friday, fared relatively well with $3.2 million (roughly $3,231 average per theater, which was better than the other new wide releases), but that just barely got it into the Top 10.
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Sony’s Affirm Films division released the boxing biopic “Big George Foreman,” starring Khris Davis (as Foreman) and Forest Whitaker (as his trainer/mentor Doc Broadus), into 3,054 theaters, but America seems to be biopic-ed out, because it bombed with just $3 million, not even enough to open in the Top 10. Its “A-” CinemaScore did little to help matters.
Focus Features released “We Are Lady Parts” creator Nida Manzoor‘s directorial debut “Polite Society” into 927 theaters on Friday, where it only brought in $800,000 or just $863 per theater.
Fifty players had “Are You There God?” taking second place, vs. the 91 players who had it (correctly) taking third place in this week’s box office prediction game. As has been the case in recent weeks, fourth and fifth place were a mess, although very few players put “Big George Foreman” in their Top 5. A majority of players had “John Wick” staying in the Top 5 for another week at least, but only 13 players had it remaining in fourth place.
Sixteen users went 5 out of 6 in the April 21 box office game with “Lasse_Galsgaard” leading the pack with 28,43 points thanks to their fifth place Super Bet on “Dungeons & Dragons.” Congrats!
This coming Friday, James Gunn‘s “Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3” will kick off the usually-lucrative summer movie season at the box office, with attempted counter-programming from the romantic dramedy, “Love Again.” Check back on Wednesday for Gold Derby’s weekend preview, but you can get an advance look with the May box office preview.
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