Box Office Round-Up ~ 4/17/23

By: [email protected] on

Mamma mia indeed! In its second weekend in theaters, The Super Mario Bros. Movie dropped around just 40% from its debut, exceeding projections for a weekend total of $92.3 million. It has now cleared $350 million overall domestic, making it the highest grossing U.S. release of 2023 so far, and by a wide margin (roughly $140 million more than Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania). With no comparable competition on the horizon until Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 in early May, the rest of April may be Mario’s for the taking.

Continuing the horror genre’s mini-Renaissance at the box office, two new horror titles landed in the top five. The Pope’s Exorcist took second place with $9 million, while horror-comedy Renfield, starring Nicolas Cage as Dracula and Nicholas Hoult as his long-suffering titular henchman, debuted in fourth place with $8.02 million. It just barely missed out on third place, which belongs once again to John Wick: Chapter 4, which grossed $8.04 million, putting it at $160 million domestic in its fourth weekend.

Rounding out the top five was AIR, which also exceeded expectations with a sophomore weekend gross of $7.8 million, putting it past $30 million total domestic. It may get pushed out of the top five next weekend with the arrival of another horror release, Evil Dead Rise, but will likely remain a solid counter-programming option amidst the video game, action and horror competition.

1.  The Super Mario Bros. Movie ($92.3 MM)
Director: Aaron Horvath (CAA), Michael Jelenic (CAA), Pierre Leduc, Fabien Polack
Writers: Matthew Fogel (UTA)
Cast: Chris Pratt (UTA)
         Jack Black (Ocean Avenue)
         Charlie Day (CAA)

2. The Pope’s Exorcist ($9 MM)
Director: Julius Avery (CAA)
Writers: Michael Petroni (UTA), Evan Spiliotopoulos (WME), R. Dean McCreary (Gersh), Chester Hastings (Gersh), Jeff Katz (UTA)
Cast: Russell Crowe (Brillstein)
         Daniel Zovatto (CAA)
         Alex Essoe (Inphenate)

3. John Wick: Chapter 4 ($8.04 MM)
Director: Chad Stahelski (WME)
Writers: Shay Hatten (CAA), Michael Finch (Verve)
Cast: Keanu Reeves (WME)
         Laurence Fishburne (CAA)
         Ian McShane (CAA)

4.  Renfield ($8.02 MM)
Director: Chris McKay (UTA)
Writers: Ryan Ridley (UTA), Robert Kirkman (CAA)
Cast: Nicholas Hoult (UTA)
         Nicolas Cage (WME)
         Awkwafina (UTA)

5. AIR ($7.8 MM)
Director: Ben Affleck (WME)
Writers: Alex Convery (UTA)
Cast: Matt Damon (WME)
         Jason Bateman (CAA)
         Ben Affleck (WME)

Source: Box Office Mojo, The Numbers