The Super Mario Bros. Movie arrived in theaters in April and it has broken several records since. The animated adaptation grossed $31.7 million in its debut, jumping its way to a $204.6 million domestic gross by the end of its initial five-day run - the biggest debut of the year. Internationally, the film garnered $377 million to earn the spot for the biggest opening animated film of all time.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie's five-day opening gross is also a record for Illumination as it has the highest debut of any of the studio's releases. It continued its impressive run in its second weekend with an $87 million gross at the domestic box office which is the biggest second-weekend domestic gross ever, a record that previously belonged to Disney's Frozen 2.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie's latest gross takes its total box office earnings to $678 million gross making it the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time ahead of Warcraft, Rampage, and Pokémon: Detective Pikachu, as well as the highest-grossing film of 2023 so far ahead of blockbusters like Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, John Wick: Chapter 4, and Creed III.
Before it came out, analysts had a hard time predicting the film will reach the $1 billion mark. In fact, many distribution sources believed that the film would be front-loaded and would have lost its appeal by its second week. However, it has defied expectations and, if it continues on its current trajectory, could become the first film in 2023 to cross the $1 billion mark.