‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ blasted into theaters Wednesday with a huge $34 million domestic opening day, setting a new high for 2026 and giving the studio exactly the kind of Easter-weekend momentum it wanted.
That number puts the sequel just ahead of ‘Project Hail Mary’, which had been holding the year’s best opening day with $33.1 million. It also beats the first ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’, which pulled in $31 million on its Wednesday launch before Easter in 2023. That film went on to become a full-on box office monster, finishing with $1.36 billion worldwide. So yes, expectations for this one were already sky-high.
Big Box Office Open for ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’
On paper, this is a major win. Among Illumination releases, ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ now ranks as the fifth-biggest opening day, behind titles like ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’, ‘Minions’, ‘The Secret Life of Pets’, and ‘Despicable Me 2’. It is also now in position to join ‘Shrek’, ‘Toy Story’, and ‘Minions’ as one of the few animated franchises with two movies opening above $100 million in three days domestically.
The story this time sends Mario, Luigi, and Princess Peach back into action against Bowser, now joined by Bowser Jr., in a galaxy-hopping adventure that adds Princess Rosalina and Yoshi to the mix. This story has picked up an A- CinemaScore, just under the original film’s A.
The returning voice cast includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, and Keegan-Michael Key. New additions include Benny Safdie, Issa Rae, Brie Larson, Glen Powell, and Donald Glover, whose turn as Yoshi has been getting a lot of online love.
Fans Loved The Fun, But Some Wanted More Breathing Room
When it comes to audience reception, a lot of viewers seemed to agree on one thing: the movie is fun, but it moves fast. Very fast.
One fan wrote, ‘The pacing is good. I mean, if you like breakneck speeds that don’t let you linger on anything for more than 5 seconds, then sure?’ Another said the soundtrack is great, but complained that the movie ‘change[s] songs every 6 seconds’ and leaves ‘no time to breathe or have some sentiments.’
Others were a little more forgiving. One viewer said they liked the story beats, but felt ‘at least a few of them could have had more time to breathe.’ Another said the sequel still feels better paced than the first movie, even with the speed.
So how did ‘Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ beat ‘Project Hail Mary’ on opening day?
The answer looks pretty simple.
Mario is familiar, family-friendly, and built for a holiday crowd. It also has a wider audience across kids, parents, and longtime Nintendo fans, while buzzy additions like Yoshi and Princess Rosalina gave people something fresh to show up for. Even with complaints about the pacing, audiences still treated it like a must-see event, and that was enough to push it past ‘Project Hail Mary’ out of the gate.
