Now that's beyond a spicy meatball. A whole spicy meatloaf. Meatmountain, even. According to a recent report from Variety, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is expected to cross the $1 billion threshold at the global box office by weekend's end. Two weeks ago, we covered the fact that Nintendo, Illumination Entertainment (the animators behind the "Despicable Me" franchise), and Universal Pictures' adaptation of the iconic video game hit $500 million in a single week, becoming the most profitable video game movie of all time. Just a few days after, we brought you the news that it had already become the biggest movie of the year at the box office. And the hits keep coming -- "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" will soon join the semi-exclusive Billion Dollar Club alongside films like "Top Gun: Maverick," "Black Panther," and virtually anything made by James Cameron.
It's possible that next week's release of "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" will finally unseat the new plumber-king of Hollywood. But even if it does, a four-week run at the top of the box office is no small feat, especially for a movie with as uncertain odds for success as this one had. Of course, Mario is one of the most recognizable creative properties in the world. It's not as if designing an expensive, glossy, blockbuster-ambitious movie around his adventures was entirely a gamble. But looking again at that list of billion-dollar breakers, the fact that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" debuted with no established film franchise to prop it up makes its smash success a kind of coup.
With new "Guardians," "Mission: Impossible," and "Fast & Furious" movies approaching on the horizon, let's take a look at how the rest of this weekend's current releases are faring.
Are You There God? It's Me, Lionsgate
Last week, Lee Cronin's high-voltage horror "Evil Dead Rise" surged to an impressive $23 million opening weekend. But it still wasn't enough to even put a dent in Mario's iron-clad hold on the top spot. This week "Rise" managed to handily overtake "The Pope's Exorcist" for second place, and if you measure its growth from Friday to Friday rather than by cumulative weekends, the Raimi reimagining earned added a staggering $25 million to its $10 million opening day haul. The power of Crowe couldn't compel "The Pope's Exorcist" to have much of an afterlife beyond its solid debut, however. The film has fallen from 2nd to 9th on the box office leaderboard in its second weekend.
The most interesting story among this weekend's would-be "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" successors is the appearance of the heartwarming and long-awaited Judy Blume adaption "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" in the third spot. The film has earned $2.25 million in its first two days, making it Lionsgate's third film in the top ten, alongside the gritty, Finnish WWII film "Sisu" (#5) and "John Wick: Chapter 4," (#7) which is in its sixth week on the box office top ten.
It's always exciting to see non-franchise, non-genre dramas that don't rely on CG explosions succeeding with audiences. But "Margaret" is an especially welcome success story, given its primary appeal to the oft-overlooked female youth demo. We'll have to see how James Gunn's latest installment in the "Guardians of the Galaxy" franchise plays out. In his review, /Film's own Chris Evangelista called the film a "rushed, uneven, sporadically emotional end to the trilogy." But quality doesn't always play a 1:1 role in box office success. Only time (and Mantis, probably) can tell.
Read this next: The 30 Most Anticipated Movies Of 2023
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