Mario Just Made $300M Domestic and Is Not Done Yet
Quick Reads
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossed $300 million domestically in its second weekend, becoming the first 2026 release to hit that milestone.
- The animated sequel is tracking toward a $308–$310 million North American cumulative total by end of Sunday, while surpassing $600 million worldwide.
- The film earned a $71 million second weekend at 4,284 theaters, a 46% drop from its record-breaking debut solid, though trailing the first film’s historic hold.
- Universal’s new romantic comedy You, Me & Tuscany, starring Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page, opened to approximately $8.3 million in fourth place.
- Mario’s sequel has now outgrossed five Harry Potter films domestically and sits as the 116th movie in history to ever cross $300 million in North America.
Nintendo and Illumination’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is rewriting 2026’s box office story one weekend at a time. In its second frame, the animated sequel cleared the $300 million domestic threshold becoming the first film of the year to do so while simultaneously crossing $600 million globally. No other Hollywood release in 2026 has managed either benchmark. The film ruled the weekend chart again from 4,284 theaters, with a $71 million three-day haul lifting its North American running total to roughly $310 million by Sunday evening.
The sequel arrived carrying the weight of one of animation’s greatest ever benchmarks. Its predecessor, 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, delivered the second-best second weekend in animated film history at $92.3 million and eventually crossed $1.3 billion worldwide. Galaxy can’t match those benchmarks beat for beat its 46% sophomore drop compares to the original’s 36.9%, and it will need strong international legs to chase the first film’s total but pulling $71 million in week two still lands it seventh on the all-time list for animated second weekends, sitting alongside Inside Out 2, Frozen 2, Incredibles II, Finding Dory, and Shrek 2. That is remarkable company for a sequel navigating lower critical scores and the absence of the original’s fresh-franchise energy.
The cultural weight of the $300 million milestone is hard to overstate. In crossing it, Galaxy has now outgrossed five of the eight Harry Potter films domestically including Deathly Hallows: Part 1, as well as Gravity, Man of Steel, and both Twilight saga closers. It did all of this in under two weeks. Jim Orr, Universal’s president of domestic distribution, pointed to audience reaction scores as the engine for what he described as a run that looks set to stretch well into summer. The film carries an A- CinemaScore and a 90% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, even as critics have been far more divided, with a 42% rating from professional reviewers.
The rest of the weekend chart held its shape. Amazon MGM’s Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling, stayed strong in second place with a projected $25.5–$26 million weekend, pushing its domestic total toward $258 million after four weekends pacing just behind where Oppenheimer stood at the same point in its run. A24’s The Drama, with Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, landed third in its second weekend with roughly $7.6–$9 million.
