'Super Mario Bros. Movie' breaks 2023 box office records

foxnews.com:

Chris Pratt had another box office success this weekend with the release of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie." Box office estimates released Sunday showed the Universal Pictures film grossed $146 million domestically across more than 4,300 theaters.

In addition, the movie adaptation of the popular Nintendo video game earned another $173 million internationally, marking a worldwide total of $377 million.  "Mario Bros." massive success broke records for video game adaptations (passing "Warcraft’s" $210 million) and animated films ("Frozen 2’s" $358 million), making it the biggest opening of 2023 and the second-biggest three-day domestic animated opening (behind "Finding Dory").

Pratt voices Mario, while Charlie Day plays his sidekick Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy is Princess Peach and Jack Black is the character Bowser. "This partnership between Nintendo and Illumination is just incredible and led to this extraordinary performance," said Jim Orr, Universal's president of domestic distribution. "$377 million worldwide is just astounding and a testament to how important outside of the home activities are for families," said Paul Dergarabedian, the senior media analyst for Comscore. "Kids and their parents collectively were able to go out, have an outside the home event for the whole family at a relatively bargain price compared to a trip or a sporting event." "Mario" currently has a 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences were more favorable and gave the flick an A CinemaScore.

Dergarabedian said the release date was "perfect" and gave audiences enough time to gear up for Pratt in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.