Box Office: ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ $191M, Zendaya’s ‘Drama’ $14M+

UPDATED, MONDAY AM: Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie is settling higher with a three-day total of $131.7 million and a five-day total $190.8M after a better-than-expected Sunday of $32.7M, off 37% from Saturday’s $51M.

Super Mario Galaxy‘s Easter Sunday was a little lighter than the first chapter’s, which was $34.5M, but still spectacular. Early Monday estimates see A24’s Zendaya and Robert Pattionson movie The Drama also a tad lower at $14.2M, versus the $14.4M reported.

It stood to reason after the love and blockbuster success of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie that we’d see a second, and Universal didn’t rest on its laurels over that goodwill and phone in the marketing on Part 2. No, it was a marketing plan plotted like a global D-Day invasion. The angle of the campaign: Part 2’s stakes were about the brothers saving the galaxy, in addition to the introduction of new characters Yoshi and Rosalina from the video game,

Among the biggest power-ups in the campaign were the Nintendo Directs, essentially the means for the studio share updates on the movie to console fans directly. The trailers after debuting on Directs continued on to play in front ofWicked: For GoodandZootopia 2, exceeding the seven-day view count of trailers forSuper Mario Bros and amassing well over 1 billion views to date.

NBCUniversal’s “Legendary February” with the Olympics proved a big bullhorn for the movie; after all, there are Olympics-themed versions of the Super Mario game. During the Winter Games, there were streaming and linear spots, while Peach and Yoshi starred in custom spots that proved they could explore new sports as well as new galaxies.There were also spots that ran across theSuperBowland NBA All-Star weekends.

Among other stunts, March 10, 2026 was Mario Day aka MAR10 Day, racking up more than 160 million media impressions in a single day. Timed to a special Nintendo Direct featuring the film’s final trailer, MAR10 Day in Japan marked the official launch of ticket sales (March 9 at 2 p.m. PT). Theater owners also eventized the day with theater signage,exclusiveconcessionsandmerchandise,giveaways, and the reveal ofYoshiandBowserpopcorn buckets (Bowser’s cauldron is now a Guinness World Record holder forsmallest popcorn container). There were also outdoor events including installations that broughtPeach’s stained-glass window to Columbus Circleand agiant Lumato L.A.’s Westfield Century City mall.

SUNDAY AM: The five-day domestic on Super Mario Galaxy Movie is $190M, 3-day is $130.9M, and global is $372.5M. All three are the best openings so far in 2026. Saturday domestic was $51.4M, +6% from Friday.

There are myriad record rankings which we’ll get into later (it’s the second biggest 3-day opening for an Illumination title behind Super Mario Bros), but the most notable is that this is the largest debut YTD, and it’s just the beginning of a tentpole chain reaction heading into summer which includes Michael at the end of the month, The Devil Wears Prada 2 at the start of May, Mortal Kombat II, and yes, Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu. That’s an excellent marketplace, especially since we crossed $2B faster than 2025. It’s not 2019, but it’s more consistent and stronger than we’ve seen in recent years.

Comscore Head of Marketplace Trends, Paul Dergarabedian points out that “The 2023 Mario movie accounted for a full 54.2% of the total month of April gross of $905.3 million taking in a whopping $480.85 million domestically in that month alone. As a PG-rated movie this new Mario is like its predecessor perfectly positioned for success as PG rated films have dominated the box office and for the first time in 2024 and 2025 outgrossed every other rating.”

Important to note here on a tentpole like Super Mario Galaxy Movie is the number of non-frequent moviegoers who came out which was 62% according to Comscore/Screen Engine’s PostTrak exits (broken down that’s 35% every other month or so, and 27% a few times a year or less). The complaint by the industry has been that it’s the non-frequent moviegoers who’ve shrunk post-pandemic, not necessarily the core cinephiles.

Said Domestic Distribution Boss, Jim Orr: “This extraordinary weekend underscores the amazing partnership between Illumination and Nintendo, and the enduring strength of Mario and his pals. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie feels bigger and more ambitious, with audiences clearly embracing this next evolution of their world. Also exciting to note that this is Chris Meledandri’s 16^thmovie in 16 years, a period of extraordinary success that continues again this summer with another event title.”

Also, out of the gate this morning, AMC CEO Adam Aron was over the moon, exclaiming, “We have long said that a steady flow of compelling, well-marketed films drives sustained moviegoing. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie delivered on all accounts, with fans, families, and younger moviegoers showing up in huge numbers. It’s the highest-grossing opening weekend of 2026 so far. And as we look ahead to the rest of the spring and summer, we see one blockbuster after another soon to be released, which leads to the obvious conclusion that the trajectory for our industry is very encouraging.”

AMC delivered close to 22% of the weekend’s B.O. for the sequel, Cinemark followed with 16.7%, Regal was 16% and Canada’s Cineplex was 8%.

Updated stats show PLFs, Imax and 3D drove 44% of the North American weekend. Imax screens at 430 produced 8% of tickets sales (or $15M) while exhibitor PLFs did 19%, and 3D overall was 17%. Overperforming regions include the West, MidWest, South and South Central. Top markets (through Saturday) were LA ($7.5M), NYC ($5.4M), Dallas ($3.6M), Houston ($3.2M), Chicago ($3.1M), Toronto ($2.4M), Phoenix ($1.96M), San Francisco ($1.95M), Philly ($1.9M) and DC ($1.67M).

Top theaters, which aren’t the common ones one normally sees (Burbank was 4th and Montreal ruled!), were Cinema Cineplex in Montreal ($263K), Cinema Cineplex in Montreal, Regal Kendell Village in Miami, AMC Burbank, Santikos San Antonio, AMC Disney Springs Orlando, AMC Mesquite 30 in Dallas, Estrella Falls 16 Harkins in Phoenix, Regal Fresno Park in Cali, Cineplex Queensway in Toronto.

A24’s The Drama is coming in at $14.4M, $600K shy of Zendaya’s original Challengers, with a global start of $28M, led by UK and France. The pic cost a net $28M. 80% of the audience was under 35.

Estimated weekend is around $196.4M, -3% from a year ago.

SATURDAY AM: For those fearing the end of theatrical with Paramount and Warner Bros bound to hook up, the domestic box office is passing the $2 billion mark this weekend, mic drop, up close to 30% from the same Jan. 1-April 5 span a year ago. You can thank the power of IP and the Illumination, Universal and Nintendo team-up, Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which gross-wise is pretty close to the first movie ($204.6M) with a 5-day now of $188.5M. Today’s business will determine whether Yoshi’s big-screen debut has enough fireball to get over $200M, and if it doesn’t, well, having the fourth biggest Easter 3-day opening of all-time at $129.4M ain’t so bad, plus myriad other records being broken (read biggest 5-Day domestic opening sinceMoana 2, biggest 3-day North American opening since Wicked: For Good, best opening year to date).

The global opening for Super Mario Galaxy Movie is heavenly with $370.7M, higher than the forecasted $350M. More updates on that soon.

The 3-day of Super Mario Galaxy Movie is currently charting behind the 3-day bunny weekend bows of 2016’s Batman v Superman ($166M), F7 ($147.8M) and Super Mario Bros ($146.4M). Screen Engine and Comscore PostTrak exits are a little lighter the second time around but still strong with 79% positive (versus first pic’s 94%), and a good definite recommend of 62% (versus first pic’s 82%). 18-34 turnout still strong on this one at 59% (vs. 62%), but Mario fans got slightly older (weren’t they always?). Translation: last time the 18-24 came out in bulk at 33%, this time it’s 25-34 (30%). But wait, 18-24 showed up at 29%. Mostly male skewing at 61% just like last time (60%). Get this, best definite recommends are coming from women over 25 at 74%, this despite the fact that they’re the third most attended quad at 21% after men under 25 (35%), men over 25 (26%) and ahead of women under 25 (18%).

Storefronts might be empty around LA, but retail was alive and extremely healthy at the Americana Glendale last night with crowds at the AMC for Super Mario Galaxy Movie:

Diversity demos this time around showed Caucasian leading at 37% (up from first pic’s 30%), Latino and Hispanic at 34% (down from 41%), Black moviegoers at 13% (dip from 15%), and Asian/other at 16% (up from 14%). Business is great coast-to-coast, but over-performing in the South, Southwest and Midwest. The Regal Fresno Park in California is currently the top grossing theater for the sequel with $228K through three days. Last time around, it was the AMC Burbank with $270K (Wednesday-Friday haul).

Super Mario Galaxy Movie‘s power-ups of Imax (7% of total gross to date) auditoriums and PLF screens (25% so far) all add up to a 32% share tickets sales. Wahoo!

A24’s The Drama did $6.4M in its Friday and previews heading toward a $14M opening for the $28M net production built on foreign sales. We’re also hearing that foreign could deliver another $10M-$12M this weekend. If you know what the zany twist is in this movie, that’s a very good start. Some are throwing shade on this edgy Zendaya and Robert Pattinson romance, that the grosses aren’t good enough, but you need to realize that this isn’t a movie sold on its make-out session between three people (Zendaya’s non-IP Challengers which opened to $15M). CinemaScore is a B, higher than Jenna Ortega’s Death of a Unicorn‘s B- (why comp to a genre film?! Because it starred a big social media movie star like Zendaya), and a half grade lower than Challengers (B+). Heavy female leaning at 68% (Challengers was 57%) with women over 25 (40%) and women under 25 (28%) leading, followed by men over 25 at 20%. Challengers in those respective demos was 31%, 27% and 26%. No surprise, but The Drama is playing on the coasts where close to 49% of the gross is coming from versus a norm of 38% for other movies on the marquee. AMC Century City in LA is the pic’s top grossing location so far with $47K. Unlike Challengers, no PLFs and Imax tickets here, so va bene.

Roadside Attractions Ben Franklin movie A Great Awakening gets a rare A+ with a 3-day outlook of $2.1M at 1,289 sites in 6th place. The Joshua Enck-directed movie follows the friendship between Reverend George Whitefield and Benjamin Franklin. The pic is the only one playing to the faith-based over the Easter weekend.

All movies this weekend are grossing $194.8M which is -4% from the same weekend a year ago? What? What gives? That’s when A Minecraft Movie with a $162.7M opening led the entire weekend to north of $202M per Box Office Mojo.

Weekend estimates as of Saturday:

FRIDAY PM: The biggest opening weekend year-to-date is shaping up as follows: Super Mario Galaxy Movie is jumping +96% today from yesterday with $48.2M, which will send its 3-day to $129.3M and 5-day to $188.4M at 4,252 theaters. There’s of course, a chance that this movie gets north of $190M over 5 days; Super Mario Bros Movie saw its biggest business on Saturday of $56.3M. The sequel is pulling in more than families, meaning the older legacy console fans, I hear.

Even though part 2 is a few bucks off from the previous Super Mario Bros, who cares? (the 2023 pic’s Friday was $54.8M). It’s still massive and for a theatrical marketplace that’s paranoid about what the future will bring with two consolidated major motion picture studios, we’re in the money, and the big screen works. Amen.

Current records broken by Super Mario Galaxy Movie, and yes, there will be more broken include 2nd highest 3-day domestic opening weekend for Illumination of all time behind onlyThe Super Mario Bros. Movie ($146.3M); the thirdbiggest 3-day domestic opening for a film based on a video game behind onlyA Minecraft Movie($162.7M) andThe Super Mario Bros. Movie, and second-biggest 3-day animated domestic opening for a Universal film behindThe Super Mario Bros. Movie.

iSpot calculates that $30.6M was spent on TV linear adds for Galaxy Movie by Uni, which reached an audience of 1.52 billion. This was across the Winter Olympics, Men’s College Basketball, NFL, NBA and Law & Order: SVU. Big bucks were shelled out for the Super Bowl trailer. Top networks for the pic’s ads by ad reach was NBC (41%), followed by CBS (10%), USA (6.3%), Telemundo (5.1%), and MS Now (3.9%).

Second place belongs to Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary with $33.2M at 3,907 sites, and a miraculous -39% third weekend hold after its Imax and PLF screens went to Galaxy Movie. That’s great, and the dip could even be better by the time we get to Sunday. It’s right up there with Oppenheimer (-39% in third weekend with Imax) and a bit steeper than Sinners (-28%, third weekend had no Imax). Project Hail Mary‘s third weekend take dollar-wise is currently a tad higher than Sinners ($33.1M) and Oppenheimer ($29.1M). Wowza. Pic’s third Friday is $10.6M. Running North America total by Sunday is $219.7M.

Third goes to A24’s edgy Zendaya and Robert Pattinson romance, The Drama with $6M today (including last night’s previews) and $13M at 3,087 theaters. Some have it higher; but remember it’s female-front loaded. Current Rotten Tomatoes audience score is 80%, which is slightly higher than Materialists‘ 77% (which wound up dividing audiences with a B- CinemaScore).

Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers is seeing a fifth Friday of $2.1M, 3-day around $6M, -50% for a running total of $149.8M by Sunday.

Uni also has bragging rights for 5th place with the fourth weekend of Colleen Hoover’s Reminders of Him at 2,359 theaters with $850K today, and $2.3M for the weekend, -51%, and a running cume of $45.4M.

FRIDAY AM: The two-day cume for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie at $59.1M is about 2% ahead of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie at the same point in time. Thursday was excellent with $24.6M, -29%. Although that’s a slightly bigger dip than the first movie’s Wednesday-to-Thursday, which was 16%, Galaxy Movie‘s Thursday ranks as the third biggest for an animated movie behind Moana 2 ($27.7M, Nov. 28, 2024) and Super Mario Bros ($26.5M, April 6, 2023) and ahead of Illumination’s Despicable Me 2 ($24.5M, July 4, 2013). Updated Rotten Tomatoes audience score for the movie from directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic is 90% vs. the 2023 first chapter’s 95%.

RELATED: ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Powers Up To $122M WW In First Two Days – Box Office

Posting previews and off to a solid start is A24’s Zendaya-Robert Pattinson romance movie The Drama, with $1.7M at 3,087 sites. That’s just $200K shy of the former’s three-way smoocher movie Challengers, which did $1.9M in previews on its way to a $15M opening in April 2024. That’s all Thursday cash for The Drama and includes a fan screening with the stars last night in NYC. The Drama‘s previews also were ahead of The Materialists, A24’s romance title from last summer that posted $1.5M on its way to an $11.3M opening. No Rotten Tomatoes audience score on The Drama yet, but the critics get this left-hook movie at 82% certified fresh.

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THURSDAY AM: The updated Wednesday number for Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is $34.5M at 3,821 theaters, and that’s without any previews. It’s still the best Wednesday opening day ever in April and the best so far in 2026. Super Mario Galaxy gets an A-CinemaScore to the original’s A. No bother, people are still going this weekend.

Among opening days for Illumination titles, Super Mario Galaxy Movie ranks fifth behind 2022’s Minions: The Rise of Gru (Friday, $48.2M), 2015’s Minions (Friday, $46M), 2016’s The Secret Life of Pets (Friday, $38.5M) and 2013’s Despicable Me 2 (Wednesday, $35M).

RelishMix measured the social media reach of Super Mario Galaxy Movie at 775.6M across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram, which is 21% above family animated franchise genre norms. Flying in from the world tour and an appearance on the starting grid at the Japanese’s F1 Grand Prix last weekend, the Super Mario Galaxy Movie voice cast is extremely activated across all of their channels to more 135M fans — spotlighting Chris Pratt’s 63.2M fans, Jack Black at 48.7M, Anya Taylor-Joy at 12.5M and Brie Larson at 9.3M. Donald Glover, however, has cleaned out his social pages.

“Convo runs positive forThe Super Mario Galaxy Moviebecause Yoshi is the headline asset and the room basically melts on contact,” RelishMix reports. “Glover chatter lands as a pleasant surprise, not a stunt. Nintendo music cues are doing real nostalgia labor. Fans like the character mix and the world-building breadcrumb trail. The movie also gets a small but useful halo from comparisons where Mari is seen as delivering whatMinecraftor Disney did not. ‘Donald Glover’s voice for Yoshi is actually spot on’ and ‘the musical cue when Yoshi peeks out of the pipe is masterful scoring.’”

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WEDNESDAY PM: Out of the gate, Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie already is breaking records with a $34M Wednesday. That’s the best opening day so far this year — besting Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary, which rang up a $33.1M Friday/previews — but it’s also the best opening Wednesday in April, beating 2023’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, which brought in $31.7M. Keep in mind, no previews puffing up that figure.

That first chapter during Easter stretch 2023 went on to post a 3-day of $146.3M and 5-day of $204.6M, which was an all-time opening for Illumination. Note that forecasting a 3-day and 5-day from this point in time is tricky, and Uni sees the sequel directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic legging out to $128.2M over 3 days and $186M over 5 (second best for Illumination). Sorry, even though it’s lower than the first, that’s still awesome by all box office standards. The Rotten Tomatoes audience score on Galaxy Movie stands at 91%, which is a few notches below the 95% on the 2023 film. Critics didn’t like the first movie at 59% RT, and they don’t like this one either at 44%. The sequel cost a net $110M to the original’s $100M production cost.

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When do we know if this sequel plays above $200M in five days? Well, the trajectory for Super Mario Bros went like this: a 16% dip on Thursday ($26.5M) followed by a Good Friday spike of 106% ($54.8M), followed by another spike on Saturday of 4% (the pic’s biggest day with $57M), followed by an Easter Sunday ease of 39% ($34.5M). With schools off on Friday, everybody goes to the movies.

If these 3- and 5-day numbers hold on Super Mario Galaxy Movie, it would rep the biggest 5-Day domestic opening sinceMoana 2 ($225.4M) and the biggest 3-day opening since Wicked: For Good ($147M). Hands down, no question about it, Galaxy Movie will rep the biggest U.S./Canada opening YTD.

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Another big deal if Galaxy Movie’s long-term weekend forecasts hold: The movie will joinShrek,Toy StoryandMinionsas the only animated franchises to have two titles open to more than $100M for three days at the domestic box office. Worth a star.