It’s a me! Mario! The Super Mario Bros. Movie (and yes, they have just plonked a full stop in the middle of the film’s official title) has just pipped Frozen 2 for the title of biggest global box office opening weekend for an animated film.
Per IGN, our favourite plumber came out on top netting an estimated $368 million (AUD $551 million) across all markets.
For comparison, Frozen 2 bagged USD $358 million (AUD $537 million) during its opening weekend back in 2019. It also passed 2023’s previous box office record of $225.3 million (AUD $338 million) held by Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.
Mamma mia!
Biggest global box office openings ever for an animated movie:
1️⃣ #SuperMarioBrosMovie – $377.6M
2️⃣ Frozen II – $358.5M
3️⃣ The Lion King – $245.9M
4️⃣ Toy Story 4 – $244.5M
5️⃣ Incredibles 2 – $235.8M pic.twitter.com/C2IoaqV76T— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 9, 2023
What’s also interesting is observing the demographic breakdown of the film’s audience.
The Hollywood Reporter noted that approximately 60 per cent of all attendees were between the ages of 18-34.
In the year 2023, Gen Z and Millennials continue to gobble up nostalgia at an alarming rate and we will never apologise for it.
Perhaps the other 40 per cent were aged 34+?
60% of ticket buyers for #TheSuperMarioBrosMovie were between the ages of 18-34.
Read our review: https://t.co/I9mNUFpwIh pic.twitter.com/rhkVim4XFZ
— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) April 9, 2023
These mind-boggling stats come after months of anticipation for the film’s release.
The first trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie was released all the way back in October 2022 which honestly feels like an eternity ago.
However, despite the film’s enormous box office banking ability, critics have absolutely canned it.
The Guardian gave it a literal one-star review. Yes, you read that right.
It gave a single star review which was titled “game over for this lazy animated mess”.
The BBC wasn’t feeling much more generous.
Its critic said the film was “lazy and for fans only” (yeah, duh) and awarded it a whopping two stars.
At the end of the day, no one really gives a flying fuck about what bougie critics think.
At the time of writing this article, the movie had clocked a score of 7.4 out of 10 from a total of 27,491 IMDb user reviews.
Power to the people?!
I’m still undecided on whether I’ll go and watch it.
If I do, it’ll be for Jack Black as Bowser and certainly not for Chris Pratt as Mario…
