• by Wayne Friedman , 7 hours ago

Thanks to two major movies -- “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” and “Project Hail Mary" -- movie theaters have had the strongest overall box-office results so far since the pre-pandemic 2019 period.

IMDb’s Box Office Mojo shows the U.S./Canada movie theatre business at $2.18 billion from January to April 13 -- almost 20% higher versus 2025 and 2024 results, and higher than 2023’s take ($2.14 billion).

For the second week, Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” retained its number one position with another strong $69 million domestically -- down from its supersonic $190 million the week before.

After 12 days of release, the movie now totals $308 million from domestic theaters in the U.S. and Canada, and $629 million globally.

Amazon MGM’s “Project Hail Mary” took in another $24.5 million over its four-week opening: North American box office now totals $257 million, with $510 million worldwide.

For the year so far, movie studios have spent $283.9 million on nation TV advertising -- from 46,523 ad airings, resulting in 16.3 billion impressions, according to estimates from iSpot.

Airings are dramatically lower versus the same time period a year ago -- 72,795 airings.

Total estimated dollar spending was nearly the same -- up 3% ($274.6 million in 2025).

A year ago, impressions a year ago were also higher -- 12% more, at 18.6 billion.