'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' Tops Box Office For Third Weekend, 'Evil Dead Rise' Opens Well

Nintendo and Illumination are still riding high, with "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" remaining atop the box office charts for a third straight weekend. Deadline reported that the CG-animated picture, based on the iconic Nintendo video game franchise, brought in an estimated $58.2 million for its third weekend, bringing its current domestic total to about $434.4 million.

According to Deadline's report, this is the best third weekend ever at the box office for an animated movie, topping the $46.4 million earned by "The Incredibles 2" from June 29-July 1 2018, before Independence Day. Its current domestic total also makes it the third highest-grossing Universal Pictures release at the domestic box office, behind only 2015's "Jurassic World" at $653.4 million and the lifetime total domestic gross of 1982's "E.T. The Extraterrestrial" at $437.1 million.

Deadline noted while distribution sources thought the animated family film would take a harder hit this weekend due to kids returning to school following spring break that does not appear to be the case. The film had an excellent dropoff of about 37% this weekend, which is good and shows the film has some pretty remarkable staying power.

Overseas, Deadline's figures have the film at about $871 million by the end of day Sunday, so the film is nearing the $900 million worldwide mark and should surpass $1 billion worldwide before long. It should be interesting to see how those figures continue to climb.

The film's success would suggest that future sequels, spinoffs, and other Nintendo film and media adaptations will soon be put in the works. However, whatever those plans may be, Nintendo, Illumination, and the rest are keeping those plans very close to the vest, and they haven't announced anything yet.

Until such time, Illumination and the bigwigs at Nintendo can bask in the glory of this film's success and the success it will continue to have. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" likely won't have any serious competition to knock it from its box office throne until Marvel's "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" arrives in theaters on May 5. By then, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" will have likely reached $1 billion worldwide and will be nearing the end of its box office run.

While it only opened at No. 2 at the box office, "Evil Dead Rise" served as strong counterprogramming to "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" as an adult, R-rated bloody and gory horror fare goes. The latest installment of the classic horror franchise grossed $23.5 million on its opening weekend.

That's slightly lower than the $25.7 million opening weekend for the 2013 "Evil Dead" reboot. That film finished with about $54 million domestically and $97 million worldwide from a $17 million budget.

"Evil Dead Rise" featured an updated premise and setting for the series, focusing on a family trapped against a Deadite infection in a condemned L.A. high-rise apartment building. The film had a similar budget to the previous reboot at a reported $15 million. It was also well-liked by critics, scoring 84% on Rotten Tomatoes compared to 63% for the 2013 movie.

Original filmmakers Sam Raimi and Rob Tapert produced the update, along with Bruce Campbell, who starred in the first three "Evil Dead" films and the television spinoff, "Ash vs. Evil Dead." Lee Cronin ("The Hole in the Ground") served as writer and director of the franchise reboot.

https://youtu.be/BqQNO7BzN08

So far, the horror update looks to be off to a good start toward profitability for Warner Bros. Considering the film was originally going to be a streaming-only release meant to debut on HBO Max, and now it's raking in millions in theaters, its box office performance and journey are pretty impressive.