• by Wayne Friedman , 6 hours ago

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,” now part of a massively strong movie franchise from Universal Pictures, scored another huge hit for the theatrical movie marketplace, taking in a massive $190.1 million domestically over the five-day Easter weekend, according to IMDb’s Box Office Mojo.

“Super Mario” -- which also had a financial three-day weekend score of $130.9 million -- immediately took over as the U.S./Canada box-office revenue leader for this year so far -- surpassing the surprise hit from Amazon MGM “Project Hail Mary,” which had a three-day weekend $110 million opening.

Two years ago, the first “Super Mario," also released over Easter Weekend and based on the longtime video game, earned even higher results: $204 million (over the 5-day weekend) and $147 million (over the 3-day weekend).

NBCUniversal used much of its national TV advertising time for the movie during its 17-day “2026 Milan Cortina Winter Olympics” -- as well as NBC and college basketball. The movie also had advertising time in NFL football. NBCUniversal aired the Super Bowl this past February.

Total media value (paid advertising and advertising and promotional time on NBC TV networks) came to a $29.0 billion -- from 3,523 airings, yielding 1.56 billion impressions. 

The film now ranks among the top five in Universal movie openings. 

“Project Hail Mary” took in another $30.0 million in its third week of release, bringing it to a total domestic take of $217.2 million so far, and $420.8 million globally.

Through the first three months of 2026, movie studios have spent $267.7 million in paid national TV advertising -- up 4% from a year ago over the same time period, when they totaled $257.7 million.