Highlights
- The Super Mario Galaxy Movie crossed $1B globally in its tenth weekend, with $571.5M international ticket sales.
- Produced on a reported $110M budget by Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo, it is the highest-grossing film of 2026 so far.
- The two-film Mario series has now earned $2.3B combined, making it the ninth highest-grossing animated franchise of all time.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has become the first film of 2026 to cross $1 billion USD at the global box office, clearing the milestone in its tenth weekend of release. The movie has earned $428.5M domestically and $571.5M internationally, running steadily across 4,252 theaters since its April 1 debut.
The sequel was produced on a reported $110M budget, returning directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic alongside a voice cast led by Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Keegan-Michael Key, and Jack Black. The movie has quickly become one of the most successful video game adaptations to date.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’s Box Office Success
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie joins a select few animated films in history to reach $1B worldwide. Its predecessor, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, earned $1.36B globally in 2023, which means the two-film series has now accumulated $2.3B in combined ticket sales. That positions the Mario franchise as the ninth highest-grossing animated franchise of all time, a notable achievement for a series that is only two films old.
It opened at $131.7M, dropped to $69M in its second weekend, and then held steady across a long theatrical run rather than collapsing in the third and fourth weekends the way most franchise films do.
Why Video Game Adaptations Keep Winning
The Mario films are the clearest proof yet that video game IP, handled with some degree of care for what made the source material beloved, translates directly into box office scale. The built-in audience is deeply familiar with the characters before they buy a ticket. Parents who grew up with Mario in the 1980s and 1990s are now taking their children who play Nintendo Switch 2 titles to see the same character on a cinema screen. That cross-generational pull is genuinely rare and is something that even the largest original film concepts struggle to replicate.
The Last of Us on HBO, the Fallout series on Prime Video, the Minecraft film, and now back-to-back $1B+ Mario films represent a strong lineup of successful video game adaptations. Video game adaptations are delivering consistent results and are bridging the gap between traditional media and gaming.
