The Super Mario Bros. Hits $872 Million Globally
Guy Ritchie’s military action drama The Covenant also debuted this weekend, while Ari Aster’s mind-bending specialty film Beau Is Afraid expanded nationwide.

It easily won the weekend race in North America with an estimated $58.2 million from 4,350 theaters for a domestic cume of $434.3 million through Sunday. Overseas, it earned another estimated $70.7 million for a foreign total of $437.5 million.


Super Mario continues to make history. The pic supplanted Jurassic World ($46.4 million) to rank as Universal’s biggest third weekend in history. It was also the seventh-biggest third weekend among any film at the domestic box office after surpassing Spider-Man: No Way Home ($56 million), and the biggest for an animated title, not adjusted for inflation.
Super Mario is now the highest-grossing animated film in Universal history at the domestic box office after besting Minions: The Rise of Gru ($369.7 million) and the third-highest of any Universal movie behind Jurassic World and E.T. The Extraterrestrial, unadjusted.
The movie adaptation of the Nintendo video game is playing like an all-audience blockbuster rather than an animated tentpole thanks to its multi-generational appeal.
It will become the first movie of 2023 to join the billion-dollar club.

Coming in a strong No. 2 at the domestic box office was Warner Bros.’ new supernatural offering Evil Dead Rise, the fifth installment in the cult series created by Sam Raimi. The movie opened to an estimated $23 million from 3,402 theaters, ahead of expectations.
Directed and written by Lee Cronin, the picture earned a B CinemaScore from audiences (that’s a good grade for the horror genre). Males made up 58 percent of all ticket buyers, while the vast majority of the audience, or 67 percent, was between the ages of 18 and 34.
Evil Dead Rise stars Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland as sisters in a twisted familial tale of demonic possession. Morgan Davies, Gabrielle Echols and Nell Fisher co-star.
The movie was originally intended to go straight to HBOMax, but Warners switched course as part of its overall focus on theatrical, a mandate handed down when Warner Bros. Discovery chief David Zaslav took office.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant also opened this weekend. Distributed by MGM, the military action thriller came in No. with an estimated $6.3 million-plus from 2,611 theaters on Friday. The well-reviewed film earned an A CinemaScore and drew in older consumers (27 percent of ticket buyer were 55 and older).
The Covenant stars Jake Gyllenhaal as a U.S. Army sergeant who goes back to Afghanistan to rescue his former interpreter, played by Dar Salim, from the clutches of the Taliban.
Lionsgate’s holdover John Wick: Chapter 4 placed No. 4 with an estimated $5.8 million from 2,685 locations for a domestic tally approaching $170 million.

Amazon and Ben Affleck’s bio drama Air rounded out the top five with $5.6 million for a domestic tally of $41.3 million.
The big headline at the specialty box office is Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, which expanded nationwide after scoring a stellar start last weekend in four theaters. The mind-bending film, starring Joaquin Phoenix, came in No. 9 with an estimated $2.7 million from 965 locations for a domestic cume of $3.1 million.
Specialty distributor Searchlight decided to open Stephen Williams’ Chevalier nationwide from the get-go. The period drama stars Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Chevalier de Saint-Georges, the famed French nobleman, violinist and conductor who was of mixed race.
