Regardless of what the critics may say about The Super Mario Bros. Movie, it looks like it is well on track to make a killing at the box office during its opening weekend. The film from Illumination/Nintendo/Universal was released yesterday and is already on the way to becoming the biggest opening for a game-to-feature film adaption.
Though the Rotten Tomatoes critics score for The Super Mario Bros. Movie starring Chris Pratt as the voice of the iconic mustachioed Italian plumber is pretty low, audiences seem to be loving it. It currently only holds a 53 percent score on the Tomatometer, but in great contrast has a 96 percent audience score on the site. It makes sense though, that this is the case, given that the greatest critique many are giving the movie is that it is simply fan service with nothing substantial beyond that.
The film has only been out one day, not including Tuesday’s previews, and is already looking to have made $26 million, putting the film on target for $86.2 million for its first three days and $127.5 million from Wednesday through Sunday. This puts it in direct competition with last year’s Sonic the Hedgehog 2 which made $26.3 million on its first day which was a Friday and includes the earnings from the previews.
It is this film that The Super Mario Bros. Movie would aim to beat, as it is currently the record holder for the biggest three-day opening of a game adapted to feature film, making $72.1 million. As it stands, if predictions are correct, Mario and his friends could be set to take the medal from Sonic as long as audiences ignore the critics and are prepared for something colorful and pretty unchallenging.