Box Office: ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Dominates Again as ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Scares Up $23.5 Million Debut

The Super Mario Bros. Movie achieved the high score at the domestic box office, earning a massive $58.23 million in its third weekend of release. The animated family film easily fended off this weekends new releases, including a promising start for supernatural horror sequel Evil Dead Rise and tepid debuts for action-war thriller Guy Ritchies the Covenant and A24s anxiety-inducer Beau Is Afraid.

After three weeks on the big screen, Mario has grossed $434.33 million in North America and $871 million globally to stand even higher as the biggest movie of the year. Those ticket sales, down just 37% from the weekend prior, rank as the highest third weekend ever for an animated film domestically (surpassing 2018s Incredibles 2 with $46.4 million in its third weekend of release) and the seventh-biggest third weekend of all time (overtaking 2021s Spider-Man: No Way Home with $56 million in its third weekend of release).

Though Super Mario Bros. Movie steamrolled the competition, the R-rated Evil Dead Rise managed to collect a solid $23.5 million from 3,402 North American theaters in its debut. The film added $16.8 million at the international box office, bringing its global tally to $40.3 million. The blood-soaked thriller, from Warner Bros. and New Line, cost $15 million to produce and was originally intended to release on HBO Max before getting a traditional theatrical release.

Evil Dead Rise, a gory story about two estranged sisters who attempt to save their family from demonic creatures, has generated pretty good reviews and landed a so-so B CinemaScore from audiences. Its the fifth entry in the long-running film series, which began with Sam Raimis 1981 low-budget thriller The Evil Dead. The latest installment is the first new entry in the series in 10 years, following 2013s Evil Dead reboot, which grossed $97.5 million on its $17 million budget.

In third place, Guy Ritchies the Covenant opened in line with (albeit disappointing) expectations, bringing in a paltry $6.28 million from 2,611 theaters. The war thriller, starring Jake Gyllenhaal as a soldier returning to Afghanistan to save his interpreter, has stellar reviews and an A CinemaScore to match, but its a tough box office environment for dramas aimed at adult audiences and The Covenant wasnt able to become an exception to the trend. Among opening weekend ticket buyers for the war thriller were 58% male and nearly 30% were over the age of 55.

Reviews are very good and foreign business should be solid, but were coming off a strong run of sharply defined, high-concept releases, says David A. Gross, who runs the movie consulting firm Franchise Entertainment Research. Thats leaving less room for a title like this to find its place.

Elsewhere, the Joaquin Phoenix-led Beau Is Afraid stumbled as it expanded its theater count, landing in ninth place with $2.7 million from 965 venues. After a solid start in limited release, the head-trip from director Ari Aster has generated $3.1 million to date. It cost $35 million, so itll need to sustain momentum and then some in the coming weeks to justify that budget.

John Wick: Chapter 4 and Ben Afflecks sports drama Air rounded out the top five.

The fourth John Wick movie added $5.75 million from 2,685 venues in its fifth weekend of release, bringing its domestic tally to $168.88 million. Its overtaken the global total for 2019s John Wick: Chapter 3 Parabellum ($328 million) to become the highest earner of the Keanu Reeves-led action franchise.

Air took fifth place with $5.5 million from 2,823 theaters. To date, the Amazon film has earned $41.2 million at the domestic box office and $54 million worldwide. Those are decent ticket sales for a comedic drama aimed at older audiences. But Air was expensive, costing $130 million to make and market, so itll struggle to turn a profit in theaters. However, the movie is landing on Prime Video with more buzz than it would have gotten without a theatrical run. For Amazon, that kind of promotion may be enough to count as a win.