Universal and Illumination’s animated adventure “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is off to a super start at the domestic box office, igniting to $34.5 million from 3,821 theaters on opening day.
Those ticket sales mark the largest opening day of the year, above Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” with $33.1 million. They also rank above its predecessor, 2023’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which collected $31 million on its first day of release. Rollout for the “Mario” movies is unique because they both debuted on a Wednesday, whereas most films (including “Project Hail Mary”) land in theaters on Fridays.
At the international box office, “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” collected $33.9 million from 78 markets on Wednesday. Globally, the movie has earned $68.4 million. By Friday, the second “Mario” adventure will be playing across more than 49,000 screens in 80 overseas territories. Top markets so far are Mexico ($6.7 million), the United Kingdom and Ireland ($4.3 million), Germany ($3.8 million) and Spain ($3 million).
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” is now aiming for $186 million domestically in its first five days of release, though exhibitors and independent tracking services believe it’ll power to $190 million to $200 million by Sunday. The film is expected to generate at least $175 million overseas, which would bring its global tally to somewhere around $360 million to $375 million. It will easily rank as the biggest debut of 2026, ahead of “Project Hail Mary” with $80.5 million in North America and $140 million globally over the traditional three day weekend.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” will need to land on the higher end of projections to match or overtake the start of the first film. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” powered to $204 million in its five-day domestic debut (including $146 million over the traditional weekend) and $171 million overseas, resulting in a stellar $375 million worldwide. It became a four-quadrant smash and ended up as the second-highest grossing release of 2023 with $1.3 billion worldwide.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” cost $110 million to produce, not including the studio’s global promotional efforts. Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic returned to direct the sequel, which is inspired by the beloved Nintendo game and follows the Brooklyn-based plumbers known as Mario and Luigi as the venture into outer space. They’re joined by new and old pals including Yoshi, Princess Peach and Toad as they face off against Bowser and his son, Bowser Jr. The voice cast is led by Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Donald Glover as Yoshi and Benny Safdie as Bowser Jr.