'Super Mario Bros.' Speeds Past $1 Billion

    

    It was another record-breaking weekend for Universal's smash hit The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Scoring a $40 million domestic fourth weekend (a light 33.3% drop), the animated video game adaptation easily topped the $28.4 million that Incredibles 2 earned in its fourth frame during the summer of 2018. It is also currently seventh on the all-time fourth weekend list, and once actuals come in Mario might find itself ahead of Black Panther ($40.8m) for sixth place. With a super-sized $490 million cume so far, Illumination's $100-million blockbuster still has plenty of gas left in the tank, and with no direct kid-friendly competition until Disney's The Little Mermaid on Memorial Day weekend, $600 million is absolutely in its sights.

    Mario is still dominating overseas, raking in $68.3 million and dropping a miniscule 3.5% from last session. That terrific drop can undeniably be attributed to this week's strong openings in Japan ($14.3m) and South Korea ($5.7m). Combining its new $532.5 million international total with its domestic gross, Mario has passed the $1-billion dollar mark in only 26 days with $1.022 billion worldwide. At this rate, a spot in the top twenty looks like a solid guarantee.

    Repeating in second place is Warner Bros./New Line's Evil Dead Rise, which posted a very strong hold for a violent franchise horror pic. It slid just 50.2% for a $12.2 million sophomore weekend, beating out the $9.5 million second weekend and 63.2% drop of the 2013 remake. It was also well ahead of the 60% drops of the last two Scream films and April 2019's Pet Sematary and far healthier than the 70-80% drops of the last two Halloween sequels and The Curse of La Llorona (also April 2019). The fifth entry in the iconic horror series has now earned $44.4 million (and a fantastic $86.5m worldwide) and should pass the remake's final gross in just over a week. Look out for a $60-70 million domestic total for what was originally supposed to be dumped on streaming.

    In third is Lionsgate's $32-million adaptation of Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret. Unfortunately, despite stellar reviews and the iconic source material, the coming-of-age comedy only managed a $6.8 million opening. It's at least ahead of Kelly Fremon Craig's previous film, The Edge of Seventeen ($4.8m), and with minimal competition and the Mother's Day weekend coming up, long legs are more than likely, but this is still a very disappointing result.

    At least it wasn't all bad news for Lionsgate, which saw John Wick: Chapter 4 drop just 14.4% for a $5 million sixth frame and the Finnish Nazi revenge thriller Sisu debuting to a solid $3.25 million in just over 1,000 theaters (charting tenth). The former just passed the domestic lifetime total of its predecessor and has crossed $400 million worldwide, a franchise first.

    Disney's re-release of Return of the Jedi for its 40th Anniversary easily made the top five with $4.7 million from just 475 locations, representing a stellar $10k per-theater average. Its domestic total over four decades now stands at $313.8 million.

    Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves held well again, dropping 25.5% and grossing $4.1 million for sixth place. Unfortunately, its $88.2 million domestic total and $194.2 million worldwide total still aren't nearly enough to recuperate its $150-million production budget plus marketing expenses, meaning hopes might be dashed for this potential franchise.

    Amazon's Air continues to do decent business, ranking seventh with $3.98 million (-27%) and totaling at $47.6 million. Indian epic Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two did strong business in 600 theaters with $3.8 million. MGM's Guy Ritchie-directed war drama The Covenant only dropped 43.3% for $3.6 million but has only grossed $12.3 million on a $55-million budget.

    It isn't until eleventh where we get to Sony's Big George Forman. Despite trailering in front of Creed III and playing up the faith-based elements that made Jesus Revolution a hit, the boxing biopic only mustered $3 million for a terrible $982 PTA. Audiences are liking it way more than critics, but minimal buzz and more adult competition on the way means that this is an instant knockout.

    Elsewhere on the chart, A24 and Ari Aster's three-hour horror comedy Beau Is Afraid added over 1,100 locations but still dropped 46.2% for a $1.4 million second wide weekend. Given the unwieldy and anti-mainstream nature of the film, its $5.6 million cume wouldn't be too bad if the budget wasn't $35 million. Focus Features' Polite Society was unable to turn good reviews into a solid opening with only $800k ($862 PTA). Janus Films' The Eight Mountains was able to turn in a healthy $36k from two locations ($18k PTA), giving it the biggest per-theater average of the weekend.

    Total box office this weekend was $100.4 million. Next weekend sees Marvel's latest summer kickoff, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which supposedly closes the chapter on some of the franchise's most popular characters. The hope for that one is that it can overcome mixed reception towards the latest MCU offerings and middling tracking. Either way, it should get summer off to a decent start with a $100m+ opening, and for the first time since 2019 we'll see big films almost every weekend.