Wahoo! “Theatrical version Super Mario Bros.” ranked first for 3 consecutive weeks

Jake Coyle Associated Press

NEW YORK — The Super Mario Bros. Movie continues to thrive at the box office, leading ticket sales for three straight weekends. The animated hit brought him close to $1 billion in just 18 days of theatrical release.

The weekend’s top new release, the horror reboot Evil Dead Rise, made a strong debut and launched with $23.5 million, according to the studio’s estimates on Sunday. But this fell short of Universal Pictures’ “Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed $58.2 million in its third weekend.

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” sets the blistering pace of an animated movie. This week, it became the highest-grossing animated film released during the pandemic, with domestic ticket sales up to $434.3 million through Sunday, and worldwide he reached $871.1 million. With “Super Mario Bros. Movie” soon surpassing his $1 billion worldwide, he’ll follow “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Top Gun Maverick,” and “Avatar” to reach that benchmark in the pandemic era. It will be the fourth movie. : Water way.

Evil Dead Rise from Warner Bros. and New Line is the fifth (and first in a decade) thriller franchise Sam Raimi started with the ultra-low-budget 1981 classic Evil Dead. Raimi’s subsequent much-loved films starring Bruce Campbell have grown increasingly slapstick, blending comedy and horror, but the 2013 reboot and Evil Dead Rise (with Raimi serving as executive producer) Appearance) relies on colder terror.

Evil Dead Rise, with a reported budget of $17 million, was also originally planned as an HBO Max release. When Warner Bros. decided that direct-streaming movies were not economically attractive, it pushed several films into theaters, such as “The Last Dance of Magic Mike” and “The House Party,” while “Batgirl” and “Batgirl.” Scoob! Holiday Hunt.

Amazon Studios’ “Air” was likewise originally set to go straight to streaming, but continues to perform well in theaters. The Ben Affleck-directed film, which depicts Nike’s courtship to Michael Jordan, dropped just 29% in its third weekend to $5.5 million, taking him to $41.3 million in total.

But horror remains one of the most reliable genres at the box office, and after a long dry run of all-audience releases, families flocked to “Super Mario,” though some adult releases weren’t. It continues to struggle to gain popularity. audience.

Directed by Guy Ritchie, “The Covenant,” starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a wounded Army sergeant in Afghanistan, opened in 2,611 theaters for $6.3 million. But with mostly good reviews (81% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes) and an ‘A’ cinema score from ticket buyers, MGM’s release could do well in the coming weeks.

Ari Aster’s “Beau Is Afraid” is the highest-grossing film of all time, produced by specialist studio A24, and has a near-wide release, expanding from 4 theaters to 926 theaters. “Hereditary”, “Midsommar”) earned her $2.7 million.

Searchlight’s “Chevalier,” starring Kelvin Harrison as 18th-century French composer and violinist Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges, also failed to make a dent. In 1,275 theaters he raised $1.5 million.

But overall business in movie theaters is largely down, thanks to spring hits like “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” and “John Wick: Chapter 4” (grossing $168.9 million domestically in five weeks of release). is thriving, so when should the theater industry celebrate? It takes place Monday in Las Vegas for its annual CinemaCon. Starting with Sony Pictures on Monday, studios will be hyping up their summer blockbusters as Hollywood tries to return to pre-pandemic box office levels.