The joint effort of Universal, Nintendo and Illumination studios, now in its third week out, ranks as the year’s top movie so far. Voice actors in the game-based animation include Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black and Keegan-Michael Key.
The weekend’s top new release, the horror reboot “Evil Dead Rise” debuted solidly, launching with $23.5 million, according to studio estimates Sunday. But that was no match for Universal Pictures’ “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which grossed $58.2 million in its third weekend.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is setting a torrid pace for an animated movie. This week, it became the highest-grossing animated released of the pandemic era, with domestic ticket sales up to $434.3 million through Sunday and its global tally at $871.1 million. When “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” soon passes $1 billion worldwide, it will be just the fourth film of the pandemic era to reach that benchmark, following “Spider-Man: No Way Home,” “Top Gun Maverick” and “Avatar: The Way of Water.”
Second place for the Friday-through-Sunday period went to Warner Bros.’ blood-soaked horror movie “Evil Dead Rise,” which recorded “an excellent opening” for a movie made for just $17 million, said analyst David A. Gross.
Lily Sullivan and Alyssa Sutherland star as sisters battling a crew of demonic creatures known, not so subtly, as Deadites.
Another new release, MGM’s action war movie “Guy Ritchie’s The Covenant,” didn’t fare quite as well, taking in an estimated $6.3 million for third spot. Gross said that “weak start” fell well short of the average for the genre.
Jake Gyllenhaal stars in the film’s tale of a US army sergeant who, after returning to the United States, goes back to Afghanistan to rescue a friend (played by Iraq-born Dar Salim) who had once saved him from the Taliban.
In fourth place, still strong in its fifth week out, was Lionsgate’s neo-noir thriller “John Wick: Chapter 4,” at $5.8 million. Keanu Reeves plays the titular hitman.
And in fifth was Amazon Studios’ “Air,” a sports drama about the business deal surrounding Nike and the Michael Jordan basketball shoe of the title name, at $5.5 million.
Rounding out the top 10 were:
“Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” ($5.4 million)
“The Pope’s Exorcist” ($3.3 million)
“Renfield” ($3.1 million)
“Beau Is Afraid” ($2.7 million)
“Suzume” ($1.6 million)
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