1. The Super Mario Bros Movie– $40M/$490M
There ain’t no stopping Nintendo’s heroic Italian plumbers. The Super Mario Bros Movie continues as the most dominant movie of 2023, surpassing $1B billion worldwide. Chances are it’ll take a huge hit and drop out of the top spot this week when Guardians of the Galaxy 3 arrives, but this definitely not game over for this franchise on the big screen. Besides, we need a sequel featuring Yoshi first.
2. Evil Dead Rise- $12.2M/$44.4M
The Deadites are winning over a brand new generation of horror fans. Evil Dead Rise, the latest revival of the Sam Raimi franchise, this time led by writer/director Lee Cronin, only slipped 50% in its second week and has $44M domestic, with a $62M worldwide total.
3. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret (review)- $6.8M
The Judy Blume adaptation Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret failed to have its prayers answered, opening with just $6.8M. That’s well below studio and analyst projections, and disappointing for readers of the classic book who have waited decades to see it on the big screen. Part of the reason could be that Blume novels aren’t typically adapted as features, or it could just be a ceiling to the targeted demo. Despite this being a story about a young girl making her way into womanhood, teen girls weren’t the audience. Rather, it was older women who grew up with the book who showed up for it.
4. John Wick: Chapter 4– $5M/$176.1M
5. Star Wars: Return of the Jedi– $4.6M/$4.7M
Because there isn’t enough Star Wars content out there, Disney re-released Return of the Jedi in celebration of its 40th anniversary. Tough to complain about the $4.7M haul and over $10K per theater average. Oversaturation doesn’t seem to be a problem.
6. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves– $4M/$88.1M
7. Air– $3.9M/$47.6M
8. Ponniyin Selvan: Part Two– $3.8M
9. The Covenant– $3.6M/$12.2M
10. Sisu– $3.2M
There’s a lot of buzz surrounding Finnish historical action film Sisu, which debuted to a sizable $3.2M. The film about a gold prospector who must fight his way through a Nazi death squad to claim his riches, has been perfectly pitched by Lionsgate to the John Wick crowd, although in my circle of buds it has piqued the interest of fans of The Raid. That was all I needed to hear, and have bought my ticket for later today.
