Super Mario Galaxy Movie Is About to Hit $1 Billion

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has grossed over $900 million worldwide since its April 1 release.
It’s on track to become Hollywood’s first billion-dollar film of 2026 before the end of May.
Critics panned it with a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, but audiences gave it a Verified Hot 88%.
The franchise has now crossed $2 billion total, a first for any video game film series.
Jack Black has hinted a Super Mario 3 could arrive as early as 2029.

Hollywood has its first billion-dollar movie of 2026, and it’s coming from the Mushroom Kingdom. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has already surpassed $900 million at the worldwide box office — just over a month after opening on April 1 — and is firmly on track to cross the $1 billion mark before May is out.

The animated sequel, starring Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Brie Larson, set the record for the biggest global opening weekend of 2026, and it hasn’t really slowed down since. Against a $110 million budget, the film has already earned more than eight times its production cost, making it a massive win for Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo.

Critics weren’t exactly on board — the film sits at just 42% on Rotten Tomatoes, with reviewers calling it everything from “disposable” to “stultifyingly dull.” But audiences? They showed up in force and loved it, pushing the Verified Hot audience score to 88%. That gap tells you everything about who this movie was made for.

A Franchise That Just Keeps Growing

The 2023 original, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, grossed $1.35 billion worldwide against a $100 million budget — more than 13 times its cost — and also earned an additional $29.1 million from physical media sales. It was one of the biggest films of that year, second only to Barbie. The sequel was always going to face enormous expectations, and while it may fall short of the first film’s final tally, it’s still poised to finish comfortably in 10 figures.

Together, the two films have turned the Super Mario franchise into a $2 billion property — the first video game film franchise to ever reach that milestone, and the only franchise in history with two films each opening to more than $350 million worldwide. That’s a genuinely remarkable run.

The Galaxy sequel is based on the beloved 2009 Nintendo game and brings back the key characters in a new story, directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic, Pierre Leduc, and Fabien Polack, with Matthew Fogel returning as writer and Chris Meledandri and Shigeru Miyamoto producing.

How the Rest of 2026 Stacks Up

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie didn’t have much competition on its way to this milestone. The year’s other big earner so far is Project Hail Mary — the Ryan Gosling-led adaptation of Andy Weir’s novel — which has pulled in over $636 million but looks likely to fall short of the billion-dollar threshold. The Michael Jackson biopic Michael has already crossed $430 million in just two weekends, driven heavily by viral word-of-mouth despite a polarizing reception. Disney and Pixar’s Hoppers has added $371 million, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 opened to a strong $233 million globally last weekend.

Still, none of them are touching Mario. The Galaxy Movie does have some competition coming — Mortal Kombat II and The Mandalorian and Grogu are both hitting theaters later this month, and those are the kinds of releases that could eat into its weekly earnings. But the family audience that’s been driving this sequel isn’t exactly the same crowd rushing to see Mandalorian opening weekend, so the overlap may be limited.

And the rest of 2026’s release calendar is stacked. Avengers: Doomsday and Spider-Man: Brand New Day are the obvious $1 billion-plus contenders. Shrek 5 and Toy Story 5 could both be major performers. Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, Steven Spielberg’s Disclosure Day, The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping, and Dune: Part Three round out a year that’s already shaping up to be the strongest at the global box office since 2019, when ticket sales hit $42.5 billion worldwide. Last year closed at an estimated $33.6 billion — 2026 is already looking like a significant rebound.

What’s Next for Mario on the Big Screen

Given how well both films have performed, the question isn’t really whether the franchise will continue — it’s how fast. Nintendo has already confirmed an animated Donkey Kong film is in development, following the character’s appearance in the 2023 original. A Universal Pictures listing has also quietly revealed an untitled Illumination/Nintendo event film slated for April 12, 2028, though the studio hasn’t confirmed whether that’s the Donkey Kong movie or something else entirely.

And then there’s what Jack Black let slip: the franchise is apparently eyeing a Super Mario 3, potentially arriving in 2029 — a similar three-year gap to the one between the first two films. Nothing is officially confirmed yet, but with a $2 billion franchise and another billion-dollar hit almost certainly in the bag, it would be a shock if this story ended here.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is playing in theaters now.