• Box Office

World Box Office April 17 to 23, 2023

On its third weekend, The Super Mario Bros. Movie inched closer to hitting $900 million globally. With the animated film opening this week in Japan and Korea, box office analysts predict that it will reach the $1 billion worldwide milestone soon.

Meanwhile, The Super Mario Bros. Movie easily achieved the $400 million feat in North America where it topped the charts again.

After earning $58.2 million in the recent weekend, adding to a cume of $434.3 million, the Nintendo game movie adaptation became the third biggest Universal Pictures release ever in the United States and Canada. That means the Bros. Movie is in the league of Jurassic World ($653.4 million) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial ($437.1 million) and is poised to surge past the latter.

Warner Bros. Pictures’ decision to release Evil Dead Rise theatrically instead of via streaming service paid off. The Sam Raimi-produced fifth installment of the Evil Dead movie franchise debuted in second place.

Directed by Lee Cronin, the horror flick depicting the twisted story of two estranged sisters picked up $23.5 million. The movie features Lily Sullivan, Alyssa Sutherland, Mirabai Pease, Richard Crouchley and Anna-Maree Thomas.

Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant, starring Jake Gyllenhaal, Dar Salim, Sean Sagar and Jason Wong, was a distant third on its bow with $6.28 million.

The action thriller depicts how a former US Army sergeant who saw action in the Afghanistan War, John Kinley (Gyllenhaal), bravely goes back to the country to save the interpreter, Ahmed (Salim), who once saved his life from the Taliban.

After five weeks, Keanu Reeves’ John Wick: Chapter 4 is still going strong in fourth place. The actor’s supposedly final film as the enigmatic assassin has now earned $168.8 million so far in the domestic market.

Ben Affleck and Matt Damon’s Air collected $5.5 million to stay in the magic five. The drama, directed by Affleck who also acts as Phil Knight, chronicles how Nike signed up then-rookie Michael Jordan and transformed the moribund sneakers company into the powerful brand it is today.

Comprising the rest of the top ten were, in order: Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, $5.4 million; Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist, $3.3 million; Nicolas Cage and Nicholas Hoult’s Dracula comedy, Renfield, $3.3 million; Joaquin Phoenix and writer-director Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid, $2.7 million ($3.1 million total after two weeks); and Suzume, the Japanese animated movie, $1.62 million.

Offshore, the blockbuster about two energetic plumber brothers collected $70.7 million in nearly 80 territories. That increased the hit’s overseas tally so far to $437.5 million and the worldwide cume to $871.8 million.

The mega hit is the champion in over 30 territories, including the United Kingdom and Ireland, Mexico, Germany, France, Australia, China, Brazil, Spain, Italy, Philippines, Malaysia, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon.

Evil Dead Rise also opened strongly internationally, garnering $16.8 million for a global take of $40.3 million.

In China, which has recently been lukewarm to Hollywood titles that got to be released in that huge movie market, the moviegoers trooped en masse to Japan’s The First Slam Dunk. Following the success of another Japanese film, Suzume, in China, The First Slam Dunk scored $55 million.