‘Mario’ tops charts again; ‘Beau is Afraid’ wins in limited
With $94 million from international showings, the movie’s global total now stands at a staggering $678 million, surpassing ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ to become the biggest film of 2023 in just two weekends
The Super Mario Bros. Movie scored the best second weekend ever for an animated movie in North American theaters with $87 million in ticket sales, according to studio estimates Sunday. The family-friendly Universal release dropped a slim 41% from its record-making opening weekend.
With $94 million from international showings, Mario’s global total now stands at a staggering $678 million, surpassing Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania to become the biggest film of 2023 in just two weekends.
Mario faced little major competition this weekend even with a slew of new national releases including Renfield, The Pope’s Exorcist, Mafia Mamma and the animated Suzume. It still has two weekends before Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 flies into theaters to jumpstart the summer moviegoing season.
Sony and Screen Gem’s R-rated The Pope’s Exorcist starring Russell Crowe as the late Father Gabriele Amorth — the chief exorcist of the Diocese of Rome from 1986 to his death at 91 in 2016 — fared the best. It made an estimated $9.2 million from 3,178 locations.
Third place went to John Wick: Chapter 4 in its fourth weekend with $7.9 million. The Lionsgate action pic has now made over $160.1 million domestically.
Universal’s Renfield, the supernatural thriller starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as the title character, opened in fourth place with $7.7 million.
Ben Affleck’s Air Jordan origin story Air rounded out the top five, with $7.7 million in its second weekend to bring its total domestic earnings to $33.3 million.
Makoto Shinkai’s PG-rated anime Suzume, released domestically by Sony with both dubbed and subtitled versions available, opened in 2,170 theaters and grossed an estimated $5 million in ticket sales.
A24 also debuted its new Ari Aster mind-bender Beau is Afraid, starring Joaquin Phoenix, in four theaters in New York and Los Angeles where it made $320,396 over the weekend, boasting many sold out showings. The three-hour odyssey from the director of horror favorites Hereditary and Midsommar expands nationwide on Friday.
Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition
