‘Mario,’ ‘Suzume,’ ‘The First Slam Dunk’ Enjoy Record-Breaking Box Office Weekends

Animated features are currently flourishing at the global box office, and each of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Suzume, and The First Slam Dunk notched significant box office records over the past weekend.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie

Illumination’s The Super Mario Bros Movie, directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, posted the best-ever third weekend for an animated feature at the domestic box office, pulling in an estimated $58.2 million over the frame. In total, the Universal-distributed pic has grossed $434.3 million domestically.

Mario’s major haul surpassed the previous third-weekend record of $46.4 million earned by Pixar’s The Incredibles 2 back in 2018.

Globally, there seems to be little that can slow the overalled cartoon plumber down. Weekend estimates now put The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s total worldwide haul at $871.8 million with $437.5 million coming from abroad.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is not only the top-grossing global release of 2023, but it’s now top in 31 international markets as well, including Australia, Germany, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Spain, and U.K. and Ireland. Mario has done especially well in Mexico, where it’s already the fifth-highest-grossing film of all time.

Suzume

Makoto Shinkai’s Suzume pulled in $1.7 million in North America during its second weekend, dropping 66.6% from its debut frame. That kind of precipitous fall is common for anime titles in the U.S., where box office totals are usually front-loaded for the films.

That said, Suzume has now grossed $8.5 million in North America, good for Shinkai’s biggest-ever box office total in the territory. Previously, Weathering With You held that distinction when the GKIDS-distributed film made $8.1 million back in 2020.

All things considered, it’s hard to be too critical of Crunchyroll’s distribution plan for the film, although one can’t help but wonder if Suzume might have done better if it weren’t going head-to-head with one of the biggest animated film releases of all time.

The First Slam Dunk

Takehiko Inoue’s animated feature adaptation of his eponymous manga The First Slam Dunk followed up a huge opening day in China with an equally strong weekend, finishing its first five days in cinemas with $56.4 million.

The First Slam Dunk’s debut was the largest Chinese opening for any non-Chinese film this year, surpassing Suzume’s $50.7 million bow back in March. That said, Suzume made its money in just three days, while TFSD began preview screenings on Wednesday evening and had grossed $13.9 million by the time box offices opened on Friday.

The First Slam Dunk had already put up huge numbers in Japan and South Korea before landing in China, and Comscore estimates that TFSD has already grossed $211 million globally. Despite only screening in three countries, that makes it the 7th-highest-grossing anime film of all time.