The new Super Mario Bros. Movie has broken box office records, with the most successful global opening for an animated film of all time.
The family film, Hollywood’s second version of the popular Nintendo game, grossed $377 million (£303 million) in its first five days on the market.
This surpassed Frozen 2’s previous record of $358 million (£288 million).
“The numbers are sensational,” said analyst David A Gross, who predicted it would “easily be the number one film of 2023.”
Chris Pratt plays the moustachioed Italian plumber in The Super Mario Bros Movie, while Jack Black plays the fire-breathing villain Bowser.
Many critics were unimpressed, with Johnny Oleksinski of the New York Post calling it “just another soulless ploy to sell us merchandise” and Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian calling it “tedious and flat in all senses.”
He went on to say that it was “a disappointment to match the live-action version in 1993,” referring to the infamous original adaptation, which starred Bob Hoskins.
Many fans, however, appear to disagree, with the 56% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes being surpassed by the 96% audience score. “The critics are so disconnected from reality!” tweeted Elon Musk.
Crowds “didn’t seem to care about so-so reviews,” according to Pamela McClintock of the Hollywood Reporter.
Other records were broken by the film, including the best-ever opening for a film based on a video game and the best opening of 2023 so far, she said.
“This is one of the biggest box office over-performances in recent memory,” Comscore analyst Paul Dergarabedian told the outlet, “and is absolutely shattering all pre-release projections.”
