5 Reasons Why The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Ruled The Box Office
by Ryan Scott · /FilmMario and Luigi have returned to the big screen. This time, they brought even more friends with them, and once again, it resulted in a bonafide blockbuster box office hit. Universal Pictures and Illumination brought "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" to theaters over Easter and it did not disappoint, delivering the biggest opening of the year so far.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the galaxy-spanning sequel to 2023's "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" opened to $130.9 million domestically in its first weekend, and $190.1 million over its first five days (per AP News). Prior to opening, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" was tracking to earn around $160 million across its first five days and around $100 million over the weekend. Universal decided to open the animated flick mid-week on Wednesday to get in early on the holiday feast, which proved to be a wise decision. It also paid off overseas; "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" pulled in $182.4 million internationally from 80 markets, bringing its worldwide total to a mammoth $372.5 million.
This is the same playbook the studio ran with their first animated adaptation of Nintendo's beloved franchise three years ago. The previous "Mario" broke the record for a video game movie at the box office, pulling in $204.6 million across its first five days. It eventually went on to earn $1.36 billion worldwide. Universal kept the strategy the same, going with the old "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" logic.
So, what went right here? How did Universal, Nintendo, and Illumination deliver so handily on expectations with this much-anticipated sequel? We're going to go over the biggest reasons why "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" ruled the box office on its opening weekend. Let's get into it.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was the first all-ages blockbuster of 2026
The first quarter of 2026 has been occasionally encouraging when it comes to the box office, with quite a few horror movies and even stuff like Pixar's "Hoppers" doing well, relative to expectations. However, "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is the first true blue blockbuster of the year that is genuinely for everyone. Not that everyone is going to love it, but it's broadly for all sorts of moviegoers.
Ryan Gosling's "Project Hail Mary" has dominated the box office and has been a most welcome surprise hit. But it's not quite as wide-reaching, in terms of its potential audience, as a PG animated "Mario" movie sequel. This is that first pre-summer, holiday-driven, family-friendly, all-hands-on-deck hit. It's not rocket science, it's just the first time this year that a studio has unleashed one of its crown jewels upon the masses, and this one delivered on expectations.
We've also had movies like "Scream 7" that were big hits relative to their intended audience, but again, an R-rated horror movie can't reach nearly as many people as this movie can. It's just the nature of the beast. Even though there is some competition in the animated movie space from the aforementioned "Hoppers" right now, a Pixar original doesn't pack the same punch as it once did, and that film is also already a few weeks into its run. All of this to say, literally nothing was standing in this movie's way. It was the right movie at the right time.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie pleased the intended audience
When "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" opened in 2023, it wasn't exactly a critical darling. It holds a 59% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. That said, it absolutely worked for the general ticket-buying public, as it holds a 95% audience rating. In the case of its galaxy-focused follow-up, Universal and the filmmakers managed to make another crowd-pleaser, with audiences buying what the sequel was selling.
"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" holds a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, but an 89% audience score. It also received an A- CinemaScore (its predecessor, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," got an A grade). What matters here is the audience, above all else. Critical approval doesn't hurt, but given that the first movie was one of the biggest box office surprises of 2023 and one of the highest-grossing animated movies of all time, there was always going to be a certain amount of automatic buy-in for the sequel.
What matters is that audiences really liked the first movie, and that means its $1.3 billion wasn't a one-and-done "fool me once" eye-popping box office total. Rather, it was the first building block in a meaningful franchise, one that has a sizable audience both in North American and around the world. The numbers and data tell us that the audience has thus far enjoyed the studio's approach to the franchise.
Universal Pictures opened up the Nintendo universe
The previous "Mario" movie was an introduction to the character's world, which is vast and spans decades of games. "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" not only adapts a very popular game within the franchise, but it also, as the name implies, opens up the Nintendo universe in a more meaningful way. That was enticing to fans of not only the first movie, but Nintendo's larger universe of characters as well.
Universal sort of slow-dripped the fact that this sequel was opening up the vault and bringing in a lot more characters. It started with Rosalina (voiced by Oscar-winner Brie Larson) and went from there. We learned Donald Glover would be voicing Yoshi, and the week before the release, it was revealed that Star Fox was going to appear in "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" as well, voiced by none other than Glen Powell, which was a pretty big "oh s***" moment for Nintendo fans of a certain age. Not unlike peak 2010s Marvel, decisions like that are how a studio builds a cinematic franchise with meaningful value.
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" and its success paved the way for a Nintendo cinematic universe. The sequel is very much delivering on the promise of that idea, which was put on front street without spoiling everything. That was more than enough to build hype and motivate lots of different audiences to show up on opening weekend, not just families with kids to keep happy.
Family-friendly movies continue to rule the world
Whether it's Mario or Stitch, the fact of the matter is that family-friendly movies have firmly become the new sure thing at the box office, at least when they are firing on all cylinders. That's not to say that every movie of this ilk will be an automatic hit, but when they work, they now wind up being among the biggest movies of the year. "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" very much looks to be a continuation of this trend.
Hollywood's biggest hits of 2025 had one thing in common, and that was a PG rating. "A Minecraft Movie" ($961 million), "Lilo and Stitch" ($1 billion), and "Zootopia 2" ($1.86 billion) were all PG movies, and all aimed firmly at the family crowd. Even "Jurassic World Rebirth" ($869 million), despite its PG-13 rating, is pretty family friendly as it's a generational franchise that has become a staple. "Avatar: Fire and Ash" ($1.48 billion) is sort of an outlier, but I'm also not saying that only PG/family-oriented movies succeed these days.
What I am saying is that there's a clear "key to the city" thing going on here when these movies are executed the right way. In the case of Universal Pictures, and more specifically Illumination, we're talking about a studio that knows how to produce something that audiences love. The "Minions" franchise may annoy certain adults, but they're a beloved entity. Illumination worked that same magic with "Mario," and now Nintendo is getting in on this PG movie windfall as well.
Nintendo is a global brand with meaningful power
Nintendo has been one of the premiere names in gaming for decades now. Dating back to the heydays of the console boom in the '80s when Mario and Luigi first made their way to living rooms across the world, we're talking about a brand that means something. Sega is no longer even making consoles. PlayStation is thriving, but Xbox? Not so much. Nintendo has been a true constant, and "Mario" is its cornerstone franchise.
With "The Super Mario Galaxy Movie," we're seeing Nintendo continue to exercise that powerful, global brand in a meaningful way. Universal and Illumination were the right partners. This is turning into something of a proof-of-concept/victory lap moment. The doors are now open wide for much more. Nintendo doubled down on animation with the creation of Nintendo Pictures in 2022, so there's no way we aren't going to see more of this in the coming years.
Be it a "Luigi's Mansion" movie, a "Star Fox" movie, a "Donkey Kong" spin-off, or something else entirely, this is probably going to be a perfect springboard for a larger Nintendo Cinematic Universe. A big reason for that boils down to the simple fact that Nintendo is a globally-recognized brand that means something to people. Not all IP is good IP, but in an era when video game movies are no longer automatically thought of as bad and Hollywood has truly cracked the code on these adaptations, this is about as valuable as IP gets.
"The Super Mario Galaxy Movie" is in theaters now.