Super Mario Galaxy Movie stays top of the charts as the Super Mario film series passes $2 billion globally

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie remained top of the US box office for the third week in a row, passing a major milestone for the series as a whole.

As reported by Deadline, the Universal and Illumination film topped the US charts with $35 million over the past weekend, keeping it above Project Hail Mary (which did $20.4 million) and new release Lee Cronin’s The Mummy ($13 million).

This takes the film’s global box office to date to $747.4 million, of which $355.2 million has been in the US and $392.2 million overseas.

Given that the first Super Mario Bros Movie had a total global box office of $1.36 billion, this means both films combined have now passed the $2 billion milestone.

This means that just two movies in, Super Mario is now the 10th highest grossing animated feature film series of all time (the top being the Despicable Me / Minions franchise).

The likelihood of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie grossing more than $1 billion globally may become clearer next weekend, when the film is finally released in Japan.

Japan was a major market for the first film, where it grossed nearly $102 million. A similarly strong showing for the sequel will make an eventual total global box office of more than $1 billion more than likely.

As was the case with the first film, opinion is divided between critics and the public on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. On review aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes the film currently has a critics score of 43% , while its public score is 89%.

While this is down from the first film’s scores (which were 59% critics and 95% public) it does still appear to imply that the film’s target audience is generally enjoying it despite critical negativity.

VGC’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie review says the film “knows exactly what it is – big silly fun” suggesting that Nintendo fans will enjoy it even though it won’t win over any naysayers.

“The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is an action-packed visual spectacle with a loveable cast of characters and endless surprises for diehard fans,” we said.

“Largely, the same issues from the first movie remain – notably, a threadbare plot and rocket-powered pacing leaving characters disappointingly undeveloped – but Nintendo diehards and families are likely to have a stellar time.”