Super Mario Galaxy Movie keeps the crown with a $30M weekend, Lee Cronin’s The Mummy targets horror fans, and a handful of smaller releases post steady, audience-skewed results
The weekend box office presented a familiar scene: a major family franchise continuing to dominate while a horror tentpole and several specialty films carved out more modest returns. The top spot remains with the Illumination/Nintendo/Universal release Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which reported a $7.4M Friday and an estimated $30M for its third weekend, a drop of roughly 56%. That pattern reflects a degree of frontloaded behavior where early demand is concentrated in the opening frames, and weekday and matinee play will determine any upward tweaks to its projected domestic total of $350.2M.
Trailing the leader is Amazon’s space adventure Project Hail Mary, holding steady in its fifth frame with an estimated three-day of $18.5M (about -23%) and a running domestic gross near $283.1M. Both pictures have anchored the spring box office in the way last year’s breakout hits did, though sequel and franchise entries sometimes post steeper third-week slides compared with their predecessors — a trend visible here when comparing relative declines to earlier franchise outings.
The overall weekend tally landed around $84M, down roughly 38% from the same frame a year earlier, a variance partially explained by calendar shifts and the presence of holiday openings in prior years. Super Mario Galaxy Movie played in approximately 4,170 theaters, while Project Hail Mary was in about 3,820 theaters. Industry observers note the family-friendly tentpole remains on pace for a strong global haul — projections near $700M worldwide — and could become the year’s top grosser in major markets, surpassing sizable competitors from China.
After the two leaders, New Line/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy opened in 3,304 theaters with an estimated Friday gross of $5.2M and a three-day around $13M. The weekend also featured A24’s romantic drama The Drama posting a third-weekend three-day of about $4.7M (down ~38%) and Will Packer’s You, Me & Tuscany in its sophomore frame with a ten-day cume near $14.1M.
The horror launch was intentionally pitched to genre loyalists and delivered an opening in line with expectations for a mid-budget fright feature: a three-day around $13M with a C+ CinemaScore and an audience Rotten Tomatoes rating near 77% versus critical reactions around 45%. The picture, made with an estimated net cost of $22M after Irish tax incentives, follows a family reunion that turns nightmarish after a missing daughter returns years later, and it skewed male and young: roughly 56% male and 62% of buyers in the 18–34 demo. Ethnic composition showed Hispanics/Latinos at 37%, Caucasians 33%, Black moviegoers 15%, Asians 9%, and Native American/other at 6%.
Premium screens played a notable role: IMAX and other PLF auditoriums accounted for about 33% of the film’s gross, with the strongest box office pockets in the South, South Central and West regions. Internationally, the picture opened across 78 markets and pulled in about $7.9M overseas in early rollout. Studio marketing reach on social platforms was listed at approximately 265M impressions pre-launch, a figure that compares variably to recent horror reopeners; the creative strategy leaned into director-name recognition — Cronin helmed the well-received Evil Dead Rise, which previously generated roughly $147.1M worldwide and healthy first-cycle net returns.
Smaller and specialty titles posted modest receipts, with Magnolia’s Bob Odenkirk vehicle Normal estimated at a $2.6M three-day after a $1M Friday across roughly 2,153 theaters. That release skewed older (about 44% over age 45) and carried a C+ audience grade. Other catalog and international offerings included a family animation with a cumulative near $160.8M, an indie release opening in 800 theaters near $1.75M, and a Hindi horror comedy playing in 500 theaters that showed notable cross-border traction in Canada with a three-day near $810K. Overall, this box office frame illustrated the continued dominance of franchise IP, the dependable niche pull of horror when targeted effectively, and the steady if limited returns from specialty cinema distributed across regional pockets.
Key indicators to follow include weekday and matinee performance for Super Mario Galaxy Movie, early international rollouts for new genre titles, and social reach conversion rates for films targeting engaged fan bases. As studios balance tentpole frontloads with strategic specialty rollouts, weekend figures will keep reflecting a mixed marketplace where big IPs hold sway and targeted offerings can still find profitable audiences.