Weekend Box Office: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Leads for Third Week in a Row
Mario and Project Hail Mary continued to gobble up the lion's share of weekend dollars, while Lee Cronin's The Mummy scored a respectable opening.
Last week, horror IP and a rom-com could not move audiences away from the cartoon plumbers and the amateur astronaut. So this week a mummy, action star Bob Odenkirk, and Theo Von(?) gave it a shot. No dice. People are still locked into the two biggest films of the year, and we have not had a pair of films do so well this early in the year since 2016 when Deadpool, Zootopia, and Batman v Superman had already posted over $300 million each and Disney’s live-action The Jungle Book was just getting started.
King of the Crop: The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Leads for Third Week in a Row
Only Brendan Fraser’s mummy could have defeated Mario this weekend, but that won’t be out until 2028. In the meantime, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie led the way for a third straight week, the first film to do that since Avatar: Fire & Ash. Mario brought in another $35 million of family business to bring its 19-day total to $355.2 million. That ranks 26th all time, but how does it line up with another sequel to a mega-blockbuster? Avengers: Age of Ultron had a $38.8 million third weekend with $367.4 million in the bank. Galaxy also has symmetry with another Marvel film, Captain America: Civil War, which was just displaced to 27th all time with $353.1 million after 19 days and a $32.9 million third weekend. The 48.6% dip for Mario (compared to the 35% third weekend dip for the original) has lowered its domestic estimate from $440-460 million last week to perhaps $420-430 million. But every dollar is profit at this point, and worldwide the Galaxy Movie has reached $747 million. Is a billion still in the cards for it, though?
Tales of the top 10: Project Hail Mary Holds Steady, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy Opens in Third
Phil Lord and Christopher Miller’s Project Hail Mary is just cruising towards its next milestone. Already reaching half a billion across the globe last week, it now has over $285 million of that on the domestic side. Forget Dune: Part Two, as it has already passed that. The film it is most-closely trending is (well, look at that) Disney’s 2016 live-action version of The Jungle Book. Like Hail Mary’s $24.1 million fourth weekend, that film had $24.4 million. The weekend after, Jungle made $17.1 million, while Hail Mary made $20.4 million in its fifth. The latter would still need a little boost to catch Jungle’s overall numbers, but the pattern suggests a run towards the $330-340 million region. That means $600+ million worldwide is definitely happening. (It is currently over $573 million.) It is also just the 12th film ever to gross over $20 million in its fifth weekend of wide release, plus this could rank as the highest-grossing “original” film since the first Zootopia in 2016. How about that?
Joining the likes of John Carpenter and M. Night Shyamalan as horror auteurs getting their name ahead of the title (or just a way to not confuse people with the Brendan Fraser films), Lee Cronin’s The Mummy debuted to $13.5 million, the fourth-best horror debut of the year after Scream 7 ($63.6 million), Send Help ($19.1 million) and Iron Lung ($17.8 million), while just ahead of 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple ($12.5 million). It would have been the ninth-best debut in 2025, a banner year for original horror with Sinners and Weapons. But Cronin’s Mummy barely bested Him. Cronin’s Evil Dead Rise opened to $24.5 million on roughly the same weekend on 2023 and finished with over $67 million. Critics gave that film a positive 85% while Mummy has fallen to 45%. The $22 million production has already grossed $34 million globally.
This weekend, Kristoffer Borgli’s The Drama became the eighth-highest grossing film in A24’s history. Another $4.8 million in weekend three puts it at $39.6 million. In 2023, Ben Affleck’s Air made $5.4 million in its third weekend and stood with over $37 million. The Drama is right in that pace and is still targeting a $50-55 million finish, which would make it the third R-rated film of the year to clear that number. Last year there were 12, including five over $100 million.
Last week’s exotic locale rom-com, You, Me & Tuscany, fell to $3.8 million this weekend to bring its total to $14.3 million. The numbers right now are behind those of Monte Carlo, the 2011 Selena Gomez girls trip film which had $16.1 million after a $3.8 million second weekend. It finished its run at $23.1 million. Tuscany’s numbers unfortunately share a remarkable consistency with films involving Black romances. Apart from star-driven films like Hitch and Boomerang and ensemble pieces like the Think Like a Man and The Best Man films, here is a list of said films over the years:
How Stella Got Her Groove Back ($37.6 million), Poetic Justice ($27.5 million), Love & Basketball ($27.4 million), Brown Sugar ($27.3 million), Two Can Play That Game ($22.2 million), Love Don’t Co$t a Thing ($21.9 million), Just Wright ($21.5 million), Jason’s Lyric ($20.8 million), The Photograph ($20.5 million), Deliver Us From Eva ($17.5 million), Love Jones ($12.4 million), Something New ($11.4 million)
Tuscany may struggle to reach $20 million. One film not on the list worth finding is Raine Allen-Miller’s Rye Lane with David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah, which debuted at Sundance in 2023 but was only released on Hulu and never given a chance to find its audience in theaters.
Here is some positive news for theatrical distribution, though. Magnolia Pictures, the longstanding indie staple that has released films such as Melancholia, Bong Joon-Ho’s The Host, and Let the Right One In, among others, just had its biggest opening ever. Yes, it is only their second wide release and their first to ever open in over 2,000 theaters, but Ben Wheatley’s action film Normal, with Bob Odenkirk, cracked the top 10 with $2.65 million. Their previous leaders included Woman Thou Art Loosed ($2.5 million) in 2004 and Thelma with June Squibb ($2.3 million) in 2024. If the estimates hold, Normal is already their 17th-highest grossing film ever. As long as it doubles its opening weekend, it will be in the top five. Congrats, Magnolia.
Disney/Pixar’s Hoppers should be close to victory for them as it continues to chip away at its costs. An additional $2.9 million this weekend brings the film over $161 million domestic. It has also crossed $206 million on the international side, which is among the lowest global hauls for one of their productions. Only Lightyear, Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, and The Good Dinosaur grossed less thus far. Inside Out 2 has been the only Pixar release to cross half a billion globally ($1.69 billion actually) since the pandemic, though Elemental got close with $496 million.
Rounding out the top 10 this week is Busboys, a comedy with David Spade and podcaster Theo Von, of which Blu-ray.com’s Brian Orndorf said, “If there’s a worse film… in 2026, I’ll be shocked.” The Mind Blowing Films release grossed an estimated $1.65 million in 800 theaters. Hindi horror comedy Bhooth Bangla managed $950,000 in 500 theaters. Finally, another viewing of the BTS World Tour “Arirang” in Japan made another $1.8 million Saturday night after grossing $2.44 million last Saturday as well.
Beyond the Top 10: Mother Mary Opens Decently in Limited Release
David Lowery’s new film with Anne Hathaway, Mother Mary, opened to $168,000 in just five theaters in New York and Los Angeles. A24 currently owns the three best per-theater averages of the year for releases in two theaters or more, including The Moment ($106,985), Pillion ($60,442), and now Mother Mary ($33,613)
Neon expanded Steven Soderbergh’s The Christophers into 364 theaters, and it grossed $596,000 for a total of $702,000. Neon’s Exit 8 did $669,000 for respective totals of $3.1 million and $2.8 million. Focus Features’ release of the documentary about the creator of Saturday Night Live, Lorne, grossed just $270,000 in 414 theaters for only a $652 PTA.
Falling out of the top 10 this week, Roadside’s A Great Awakening added $823,667, bringing its total to $6.6 million. The film now ranks 18th all time on the studio’s theatrical releases, soon to be passing Winter’s Bone with Jennifer Lawrence and The Courier released in March 2021. IFC’s Faces of Death fell 81.8% to $300,000 to bring its total to $2.44 million. Finally, Universal’s Colleen Hoover adaptation, Reminders of Him, made $450,000 to bring its total to $48.2 million.
On the Vine: Michael Set to Thrill Audiences
Next week, Mario and Ryan are going to give way to Michael. Antoine Fuqua’s delayed-by-third-act-reshoots biopic of the one-time King of Pop is expected to get off to a big start for Lionsgate. IFC is releasing Jorma Taccone’s remake of Tommy Wirkola’s The Trip, Over Your Dead Body, with Jason Segel and Samara Weaving as the spouses planning to kill each other.
Full List of Box Office Results: April 17-19, 2026
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie – $35.0 million ($355.2 million total)
- Project Hail Mary – $20.4 million ($285.0 million total)
- Lee Cronin’s The Mummy – $13.5 million ($13.5 million total)
- The Drama – $4.8 million ($39.6 million total)
- You, Me & Tuscany – $3.8 million ($14.3 million total)
- Hoppers – $2.9 million ($161.1 million total)
- Normal – $2.6 million ($2.6 million total)
- BTS World Tour ‘Arirang’ in Goyang: Live Viewing – $1.8 million ($4.2 million total)
- Busboys – $1.6 million ($1.6 million total)
- Bhooth Bangla – $950,000 ($050,000 total)
Erik Childress can be heard each week evaluating box office on Business First AM with Angela Miles and his Movie Madness Podcast. [box office figures via Box Office Mojo]
Thumbnail image by ©Universal Pictures
