Danica Davidson
April 6, 2023 
The Super Mario Bros. Movie from Nintendo and Illumination is here! According to Deadline, it netted about $26 million during its first day (and this doesn’t include previews that took place Tuesday). Crunching numbers, pundits are expecting it to bring in $127.5M from yesterday (Wednesday April 5) through Saturday.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 had the best three-day opening for a video game movie, and it brought in $26.3M for its first day. This isn’t beating Mario’s numbers by much, but there are also two other things to keep in mind: first, Sonic the Hedgehog’s numbers include the previews the day before, and second, Sonic opened on a Friday, not a Wednesday like Mario. Friday, being the start of a weekend, can attract many moviegoers. But it’s also the case that spring break is happening for many people this week, meaning millions are on vacation.
At any rate, Sonic the Hedgehog 2 made $72.1M during its first three days, the people behind The Super Mario Bros. Movie want to beat those numbers and make a new record. Right now that looks possible.
Deadline noted that the movie’s Rotten Tomatoes score is at 54%, while its audience score is a much higher 95%. And even the Rotten Tomatoes score is far higher than what the combined 29% score is for the live-action 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie has.
The movie stars Chris Pratt as Mario. Beyond that, Charlie Day plays Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy plays Princess Peach, Jack Black plays Bowser, Seth Rogen plays Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key plays Toad, Fred Armisen plays Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson plays Kamek, and Sebastian Maniscalco plays Spike. The script was written by Matthew Fogel and the directors are Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic.
The movie has not yet come out in Japan, so it will be curious to see what its numbers are in the country of its characters’ creation.
Source: Deadline
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Danica Davidson is the author of the bestselling Manga Art for Beginners with artist Melanie Westin, plus its sequel, Manga Art for Everyone, and the first-of-its-kind manga chalk book Chalk Art Manga, both illustrated by professional Japanese mangaka Rena Saiya. Check out her other comics and books at www.danicadavidson.com.
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