Box Office: ‘Super Mario’ and ‘Hail Mary’ Easily Scare Off ‘Lee Cronin’s The Mummy’
and continue to rule the , while new horror pic Lee Cronin’s The Mummy opened in third place domestically with an estimated $13.5 million. The Blumhouse and Atomic Monster production made up some ground overseas with $17.5 million in ticket sales for a worldwide start of $34 million against a modest $22 million net budget.
From Universal and Illumination, Super Mario stayed atop the North American chart in its third weekend with a better-than-expected $35 million as it cleared the $350 million mark domestically. Overseas, it pulled in another $83.2 million to finish Sunday with a foreign tally of $392.2 million and $747.5 million globally. (In Israel, it became the first Hollywood to open there since the ceasefire was declared and did decent business, according to Universal insiders.)
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The Mario franchise has now earned a combined $2 billion globally to put it at No. 10 on the list of the top-grossing animated franchises of all time after already becoming the top Hollywood animated film of the year so far. Chris Meledandri’s Illumination now lays claim to three; Mario, Ice Age and Gru.
The landscape will change dramatically next weekend when Michael, Lionsgate’s Michael Jackson biopic opens followed a week later by The Devil Wears Prada 2, which marks the official start of the summer box office (Prada also Hathaway).
Amazon MGM Studios’ Hail Mary continues its remarkable journey, falling only 15 percent in its fifth weekend to an estimated $20.4 million for a domestic cume of $285 million and a staggering $573.1 million globally. The sleeper hit returned to Imax and other premium large format screens this weekend, several days after star/producer Ryan Gosling and directors Phil Lord and Christopher Miller showed up at CinemaCon to thank theater owners and announce that Amazon MGM is extending the film’s exclusive run in cinemas.
Produced by Jason Blum, James Wan and John Kevillle alongside Cronin, The Mummy continues Hollywood’s fascination with ancient Egyptian lore lore. The film has divided critics, while audience exits are more promising (it did earn a C+ CinemaScore, but that’s not unusual for a horror pic.) Plus, it had to share Imax screens with Hail Mary.
Jack Reynor, Laia Costa, May Calamawy, Natalie Grace and Veronica Falcón star in the pic, which Cronin wrote and directed. The story centers on a family who has been grieving the disappearance of their daughter eight years earlier in Cairo. Suddenly, they get a call from Egyptian officials revealing she has been found after spending the past eight years in a 3,000-year-old sarcophagus and has been transformed into a living mummy-like creature.
Cronin is celebrated for reviving the Evil Dead franchise with Evil Dead Rise, which grossed $147 million globally in 2023. He came on the scene with the 2019 feature The Hole in the Ground, which bowed at Sundance.
New openers at the specialty box office included what A24 calls its wildly original, Anne Hathaway-led music industry drama Mother Mary, and Morgan Neville’s Lorne Michaels biopic Lorne, from Focus Featires
Mother Mary, playing in only five locations, earned $168,363 for a promising per location average of $33,613 before expands into additional cinemas next weekend. David Lowery’s original and haunting pop drama follows the iconic Mother Mary (Hathaway) as she reunites with her estranged best friend (Michaela Coel) on the eve of her comeback concert. Hathaway performs several of the original songs written by Jack Antonoff, Charli XCX, and FKA Twigs.
Lorne grossed $270,000 from roughly 450 cinemas.
More to come.
April 19, 7:45 a.m.: Update with revised figures.
This story was originally publised at April 19.
