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“The Super Mario Bros. Movie» scored the best second weekend ever for an animated movie in North American theaters with $87 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The family-friendly Universal release dropped a slim 41% from its record-making opening weekend.
With $94 million from international showings, “Mario’s” global total now stands at a staggering $678 million, surpassing “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” to become biggest film of 2023 in just two weekends.
“There are not enough adjectives to describe the enormity of this box office performance,” said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comsore.
For most blockbusters, second weekends are usually down by about 60%, making “Mario’s” 41% drop especially noteworthy. According to Comscore, only a handful of films that opened over $100 million have had less of a fall, including “Shrek 2,” “Frozen 2,” 2002’s “Spider-Man,» “The Force Awakens” and 2016’s “The Jungle Book.”
“To the casual observer that may not seem like a big deal, but that is an important metric,” Dergarabedian said. “It’s the greatest indicator of audience love for the movie.”
“Mario” faced little major competition this weekend even with a slew of new national releases including “ Renfield,” “The Pope’s Exorcist,” “ Mafia Mamma ” and the animated “ Suzume.
