“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” powered up at the box office with an impressive opening.
The movie ran up the score with more than $200 million in the US and Canada for its five-day opening run, according to a news release, and an estimated $377 million worldwide – the latter topping the box office launch record for an animated movie, previously held by “Frozen 2.”
It marks the biggest global box office opening of the year, with “Super Mario Bros.” standing ahead of “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which brought in the $225.3 million during its February opening.
The movie is based on the world of Nintendo’s classic 1985 “Super Mario” video games and stars Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi and Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach.
Jack Black, Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Kevin Michael Richardson and Sebastian Maniscalco round out the cast.
Actor Charles Martinet, Mario’s longtime official voice in the games – who many gamer purists felt should have been cast as the titular character instead of Pratt – makes a special appearance in the movie.
“Super Mario Bros.” follows Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi as they’re transported down a mysterious pipe while working underground to fix a water main. The brothers wander into a “magical new world” and when they’re separated, “Mario embarks on an epic quest to find Luigi,” according to a synopsis on the movie’s website.
The solid opening is a healthy sign for movie theaters headed into the summer box office season, with the next “Guardians of the Galaxy” movie, also starring Pratt, kicking off in May.
