The Super Mario Bros movie has been an unstoppable force, and now the beloved animated venture will cross the $1 billion mark this weekend. By Monday, the film should be at the $487.5 million mark in domestic sales, with $533 million in international sales, pushing into the record books. This feat is more impressive because the Illumination powerhouse film has achieved this in 26 days.

Related: ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Still Smashing Box Office Records
The Super Mario Bros movie was initially released on April 5 and has been on top of the box office for four straight weeks. Even when most films have massive dropoffs, the video game adaptation has remained at the top. Its fourth-weekend pull of domestic numbers has made it the fourth-best weekend in animation history. The previous record holder was Incredibles 2 at $28.4 million, but Super Mario Bros has smashed that record with $37.5 million.
These numbers have catapulted the animated film to the top of the list for the fourth straight week, beating out new films like George Forman and Sisu.
These records have allowed the Mario movie to skyrocket into the fifth movie to cross the billion-dollar mark in the pandemic era of film releases. Super Mario joins a list that includes Spider-Man: No Way Home, Jurassic World: Dominion, Top Gun: Maverick, and Avatar: The Way of Water. Illumination can also boast it’s the only animated film on this list.

Interestingly, many believed that the Super Mario Bros movie would fail simply because of what critics had to say. The current critic approval rating for the adaptation is 59% on Rotten Tomatoes, though the 96% audience approval rate tells a much different story.
Though Nintendo had previously attempted to adapt the famous video game before, Disney was not happy with the decisions made in the live-action version that starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo. The dark nature of that 1990s film made it nearly impossible for a sequel to happen, let alone for Disney to want to try again.
Enter Illumination. The animation studios have been on fire in recent years, starting with their hit franchise, Despicable Me. That also spawned the equally successful Secret Life of Pets and Sing franchises. Disney has been on top of the animation game for a long time, but Illumination has found its footing to combat Disney and Pixar’s best works.
This massive success at the box office has led to Mario creator, Shigeru Miyamoto, stating that there is “no doubt” that more Mario movies will be on the way. That should be a given, but it’s enough to excite franchise fans.

Related: 10 Nintendo Franchises To Follow Up ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’
We would love to see what Nintendo franchises could be tapped next for an animated adaptation, and there are plenty of great ones to choose from. We will all have to see what the Super Mario Bros movie numbers are when the excitement finally dies down. At this rate, the animated phenom could become one of the highest-grossing movies ever.
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