Box Office Report for the Week of April 16

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still making an ungodly amount of money, reaching the $600 million (!!!) mark in its second weekend, and grossing over $87 million domestically during the weekend. By the time its run is over, it will be the highest-grossing video game movie of all time and possibly the highest-grossing animated movie of all time. I spoke about this last week, but Universal must play their cards right. Allow the film to have legs to reach that coveted $1 billion, which has been rare since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Movies don’t necessarily need to make $1 billion to be a success, but it’s always great when you can clearly see a path being forged to that mark if that specific film plays long enough in a theater. The case of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it will hopefully put the nail in the coffin that it’s not just superhero movies that are the big draws in cinemas right now.

This weekend also saw some mid-budget studio films released to complement the large blockbuster offering of Mario Bros. Julius Avery’s The Pope’s Exorcist over-performed all expectations, grossing over $9.1 million domestically and over $36.6 million in its total run, already going over its $18 million budget. It hasn’t received great reviews, but the social media marketing campaign has been on point. Who doesn’t want to see Russell Crowe driving to all corners of Europe in his ExorcistMobile to perform exorcisms? I’m here on DAY ONE.

Universal reached massive success with The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which could help them recoup the loss that Renfield brought. The Nicolas Cage/Nicholas Hoult-starring horror comedy bombed terribly at the box office, finishing behind The Pope’s Exorcist and John Wick: Chapter 4 with a $7.7 million opening over a $60 million budget! With a movie like this, it makes sense for Universal to release it on VOD in a few weeks since it will lose more money next weekend. But with something like Super Mario Bros, waiting is the smart decision.

And here’s an interesting movie to watch for next weekend: Ari Aster’s Beau is Afraid finished thirteenth and grossed $320.396 in only four theatres. It is the second-best per-screen average for A24 since Josh and Benny Safdie’s Uncut Gems. The film only opened in four theatres in New York and Los Angeles this weekend, and the word of mouth will likely expand for its wide release on April 21. It’s also getting a wide IMAX release on the 21st, which means that A24 is highly confident that it will be a box office success. Who knows what will happen, but the divisive reception for this 179-minute surrealist black comedy will only make people who were planning to see it want to go as soon as it opens. 

Here’s the full list of the top ten films of the week:

1. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (Universal): $87.0M (-40.6%) – 4,371 theatres
2. The Pope’s Exorcist (Sony): $9.1M – 3,178 theatres
3. John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate): $7.9M (-45.2%) – 3,033 theatres
4. Renfield (Universal): $7.77M – 3,375 theatres
5. Air (Amazon Studios): $7.72M (-46.6%) – 3,507 theatres
6. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (Paramount): $7.3M (-47%) – 3,324 theatres
7. Mafia Mamma (Bleecker Street): $2.0M – 2,002 theatres
8. Scream VI (Paramount): $1.4M (-57.5%) – 1,288 theatres
9. Nefarious (Soli Deo Gloria Releasing): $1.3M – 933 theatres
10. His Only Son (Angel Studios): $518.971(-81.5%) – 1,288 theatres

Source: Box Office Mojo