LOS ANGELES – Movie critics were no match for Mario over the weekend.
Despite a torrent of negative reviews (“huge bummer,” “rock-stupid,” “torturous to sit through,”), Illumination Entertainment’s “Super Mario Galaxy Movie” collected about $130 million in North America from Friday through Sunday, for a total of roughly $190 million since arriving Wednesday, according to Comscore, which tracks moviegoing data.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” an animated sequel that cost an estimated $110 million to make, earned an additional $182 million overseas, for a global total of about $373 million. Its franchise predecessor, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” took in $378 million worldwide over the same period in 2023 and ultimately sold $1.4 billion in tickets.
The box office as a whole has been on the upswing lately. Ticket sales totaled $1.8 billion in North America from January through March, a 23% increase over the same period last year, according to David Gross, a box office analyst. Recent hits have included “Project Hail Mary” (Amazon MGM), which has collected about $217 million in North America since its release March 20. “Scream 7” (Paramount) sold $120 million in tickets earlier this year, a franchise high.
Even so, ticket sales for the first quarter of this year were roughly 33% below totals for the same period in prepandemic years, Gross said.
“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” distributed by Universal Pictures and based on a Nintendo video game, may have received weak reviews from critics, but fans were much more forgiving. Audiences gave it an A-minus grade in CinemaScore exit polls, Gross noted in an email Saturday.
“Kids love the movie,” he said.
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.