Universal/Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has broken yet another box office record for animation with an estimated $58 million in its third weekend.
Just like last weekend, “Mario” has posted the highest total ever seen for an animated film in its third weekend and, at the moment, the seventh highest third weekend for any film. Given how the last two weekends have seen the film’s estimates rise as the weekend goes on, there’s still a chance that this $58 million estimate could rise to $60 million or higher.
Currently, Universal estimates that “Super Mario Bros.” will pass the $850 million mark worldwide by the end of the weekend, putting it in position in this coming week to pass the $939 million global total of “Minions: The Rise of Gru” to become the highest grossing animated film of the post-shutdown era. “Mario” has already passed “Rise of Gru” at the domestic box office, as it is set to reach $434 million in North America by the end of the weekend.
In second this weekend is Warner Bros./New Line’s “Evil Dead Rise” with an estimated opening day of $10.3 million from 3,402 theaters. For the weekend, the gory horror film is expected to earn $23 million, meeting independent projections for an opening above $20 million.
If “Evil Dead Rise” can stretch a little further, it will match the unadjusted $25.7 million opening earned by the last “Evil Dead” film in 2013. Originally greenlit for HBO Max before being shifted to theaters after the Warner Bros. Discovery merger, “Evil Dead Rise” has earned positive reception with a B on CinemaScore and Rotten Tomatoes scores of 85% critics and 83% audience.
MGM/STXFilms’ “The Covenant” is in third with $2.3 million grossed from 2,611 theaters and an estimated opening weekend of $6.1 million, meeting box office projections. Starring Jake Gyllenhaal in a war thriller about an Army sergeant on a mission to rescue the Afghan interpreter who saved his life, the film has been well received with an 81% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and an A on CinemaScore.
