Super Mario Bros. Movie, Air Opening Day – Variety

© Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

The Super Mario Bros. movie has been released. Movie is at the top of the box office charts, collecting $31.7 million on its opening day. Ben Affleck’s sports drama “The Air,” which debuted Wednesday, has taken in $3.2 million from 3,507 places.

After a bigger-than-expected opening day, Universal and Illumination’s big-screen adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. video game series has revised its ratings. to $92 million during its traditional weekend and $141 million in its first five days of release. These ticket sales continue to be strong at the box office following the March releases of “Scream VI,” “Creed III,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” and “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.”

At the international box office, Super Mario Bros. Movie on Wednesday took $34.7 million from 44 markets, led by Mexico ($5.9 million), the United Kingdom and Ireland ($4.8 million), and China ($4.7 million). It is expanding to 70 overseas territories by Sunday.

“Air” is expected to earn $10.6 million over the weekend and $16 million to $18 million in its first five days of release. Amazon is backing the film with a budget of $90 million, and it’s one of those rare films to get a traditional theatrical release. It’s not clear how long the movie will be on the big screen before it airs on Prime Video — or what kind of ticket sales Amazon will need to count the experience as a win.

Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelinek, “Mario” features a voice cast of Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy and Jack Black and follows the mustachioed plumber and friends as they prepare to stop the mighty buggy from taking over the world. miscellaneous Chief film critic Owen Gleiberman praised the Super Mario Bros. movie as “sheer animated fun”, writing that “the second time around is Mario’s magic on film”. He’s referring to the disastrous 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros., starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi. Besides better reviews, the upcoming $100 million animated adventure will benefit from a lack of months-long films for family audiences.

Meanwhile, Air caters to adult moviegoers, who have been particularly selective in post-pandemic times. In which case, rave reviews and a star-studded cast should help fill the seats. “Air” tells the true story of a Nike shoe salesman who pursues NBA rookie Michael Jordan to get a deal to wear their shoes. In addition to directing the film, Affleck is involved with Matt Damon and Viola Davis.

in diverse’In a review, chief film critic Peter Debruge called Air “a funny and poignant Cinderella story” and “the ultimate epitome of the American Dream”.