It was already pretty clear that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was going to be a hit, but estimates after Wednesday’s record-breaking opening were a little tempered. You should never count out the brothers, though. While global turnout was a little lower than the first film, the Galaxy Movie managed to take in a colossal $372.5 million for its opening weekend, making it the biggest worldwide debut since Avatar: Fire and Ash last December.
Breaking the number down, the movie brought in $190 million in the US while its global total was around $182.5 million. That global total makes it the biggest foreign box office opening for a Hollywood movie in 2026 so far, and it’s now the second-best international debut for a Hollywood film behind, you guessed it: The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which managed $183.2 million back in 2023. That movie had a global total of $387.8 million for its opening weekend.
All the data comes from Deadline, which reports a number of other records broken by the Galaxy Movie. The Super Mario Bros. franchise is the only animated franchise to have two titles open globally to more than $350 million. Galaxy is also the second-highest global opening for Illumination behind the first Mario film. The same goes for opening weekend for a video game based film, with Mario cleaning up the top two spots. It’s unclear if the Galaxy film will manage to top its predecessor in overall box office, but considering the budget was a reasonable $100 million, I don’t think Universal, Illumination, or Nintendo will care.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
