Box Office: 'Super Mario Bros. Movie' Scores Again With $87 Million, 'Renfield' Fails With $7.7 Million

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" left its box office competitors in the dust, scoring a whopping $87 million in its second weekend of release. Ticket sales are down just 41% since its debut, resulting in the best sophomore releases ever for an animated film. So far, the video game adaptation has grossed $347.8 million in North America and $678 million worldwide.

"Mario" remained strong even as several new movies entered the theatrical race, with variable results. In a surprise finish, Universal's wacky horror-comedy "Renfield," which stars Nicolas Cage as Count Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his rebellious henchmen, landed in fourth place with a disappointing 7.7. million from 3,375 locations. Heading into the weekend, it looked like it would take second place. Instead, "Renfield" came in behind Sony's R-rated demonic thriller "The Pope's Exorcist," which also fell slightly behind expectations with $9.1 million, and "John Wick: Chapter 4" by Lionsgate.

This is a particularly weak start for "Renfield" as the film cost $65 million to make and tens of millions more on the market. He will struggle to come out of the dark in his theatrical run. And the movie earned a lukewarm "B-" CinemaScore, which doesn't bode well for word of mouth.

"It's a lukewarm opening for a horror-comedy," says David A. Gross, who runs the film consultancy Franchise Entertainment Research. "'Renfield' was an expensive production. It's a long climb to profitability, even with strong ancillary businesses."

In comparison, "The Pope's Exorcist" has a price tag of $18 million, so it has a easier path to profitability. Critics for "The Pope's Exorcist" weren't enthusiastic either (it has 47% on Rotten Tomatoes), but critical sentiment rarely counts for opening weekend horror movies. (The following weekends are another story).

Once again, the weekend belonged to "The Super Mario Bros. Movie", which should to be the first film of 2023 to cross $1 billion worldwide. After two weekends in theaters, it's already the highest-grossing film of the year, surpassing "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ($474 million). "Mario" also became the biggest video game adaptation in history, surpassing the totals of 2016's "Warcraft" ($439 million) and "Pokémon: Detective Pikachu" ($449 million). p>

In third place, "John Wick 4" added $7.925 million in its fourth weekend. exit end. To date, the Keanu Reeves-directed action sequel has grossed $160.1 million in North America.

“Air,” a sports drama directed by Ben Affleck, rounded out the top five with 7.7 million from 3,507 theaters. He could swap places with 'Renfield' when the final numbers are counted on Monday. From those ticket sales, "Air" earned $33.28 million at the domestic box office.

Elsewhere at the box office, Crunchyroll's anime adventure "Suzume" opened at $5 million from 2,170 theaters. That's not a great result compared to other recent Crunchyroll animated movies, like 2022's "Demon Slayer" and "Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero" installments ($22 million to start). However, “Suzume,” which was directed by Makoto Shinkai, has great reviews and has already done huge business in Asia. It was released last year in Japan, where it became a huge hit with $104 million.

More to come…

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