Veronika Kwan Vandenberg: Last News

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter It’s-a blockbuster! “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” an animated adventure based on the classic video game, crushed the competition with its jaw-dropping $204.6 million domestic and $377 million global debut over the long Easter weekend. Those results far exceeded expectations and even surpassed the starts of recent installments in Universal’s biggest franchises, like “Jurassic World Dominion” ($145 million domestically) and “Fast and Furious 9” ($70 million). So, expect a sequel to be announced faster than you can say “Let’s-a go!” “The box office just kept growing and growing,” marvels Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution. “It’s a tremendous worldwide debut, and the movie has a clear runway.”

Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” towered over box office charts with $377 million in global ticket sales, taking the title for the biggest worldwide debut of the year from “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($225.3 million). The animated movie — a collaboration between Illumination, Nintendo and Universal — crushed already-high expectations, igniting to $173 million internationally and $204 million in its first five days at the domestic box office. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” opened in 70 overseas territories, including Mexico ($27.4 million to start), the U.K. and Ireland ($19.6 million to start), Germany ($14 million to start) and China ($12 million to start).

Refresh for latest…: Coming in slightly above the estimates we reported on Saturday, Universal/Illumination’s Minions: The Rise Of Gru has boogied to an $87.2M weekend at the international box office. That lifts the offshore cume to $93.7M for $202.2M worldwide to date.

Elsa Keslassy International CorrespondentUniversal was out in force at CineEurope with a bevy of exclusive clips from its sprawling slate, including “Fast & Furious X,” as well as Jordan Peele’s horror thriller “Nope” and Nicholas Stoller’s “Bros,” one of the first major studio-backed romantic comedies with LGBTQ characters.The jam-packed presentation kicked off with a comedy short film made for the occasion with “Halloween Ends” star Jamie Lee Curtis in a rare comedic role playing herself a retired actor who gets a job at a movie theater and turns out to be a disaster.Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, Universal Pictures International’s president of distribution, then opened the show by stressing the importance of having a wide-ranging, diverse slate to thrive in this new era. The executive said UPI, which distribute films across Universal, Focus Features and MGM, will roll out more than 40 films over the next 12 months, “nearly doubling the titles you’ll see from any other studio here this week.” “[The] theatrical business will not survive on superheroes and VIP alone.