To give you an idea of just how dramatically The Super Mario Bros. Movie has been over-performing at the domestic box office, here’s some context. In its fourth weekend of release, the animated video game adaptation was expected to gross $30 million, but as things stand, it’s actually looking at a final figure that's around $10 million higher. And it's practically been the same story every weekend for the past four weeks; in its five-day extended debut a month ago, the movie was supposed to make around $130 million, but it ended up grossing $204 million instead. All of this is to say that Super Mario simply cannot be underestimated; it’s one of those rare four-quadrant hits that is playing equally well with children and their parents.

After under a month in release, the movie has grossed $490 million at the domestic box office, having broken numerous records along the way. Its $40 million haul is the biggest four weekend for any animated movie ever, way ahead of Incredibles 2’s $28 million gross in 2018. It’s also bigger than Jurassic World’s $29.2 million, Avengers: Endgame's $29.9 million and Spider-Man: No Way Home’s $32.1 million fourth weekends. Incredibles 2 remains the biggest animated film of all time at the domestic box office, with a $608 million lifetime haul. This is arguably the only record that Super Mario should be aiming for next, having recently become the first film of 2023 to pass the coveted $1 billion mark globally.

Super Mario’s sustained domination meant that a trio of new releases were left in the dust this week. Leading the pack was Lionsgate’s coming-of-age comedy Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. Based on the 1970 children’s novel by Judy Blume, the phenomenally well-reviewed film picked up $6.4 million in its debut weekend, finishing third. The Finnish-language historical action movie Sisu, from director Jalmari Helander, just about managed to find a spot in the top 10, grossing $3.2 million in its debut. Another Lionsgate title, Sisu is playing in only around 1,000 domestic theaters, as compared to Are You There God?’s 3,300-theater launch. Sony’s faith-based sports drama Big George Foreman, on the other hand, bombed with a $3 million debut from over 3,000 theaters, finishing outside the top 10.

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Image via Universal Pictures

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Last week’s new release, the horror sequel Evil Dead Rise retained the number two spot with an excellent $12.5 million, marking a solid 50% drop. The film’s running domestic total now stands at just under $45 million. Evil Dead Rise, the fifth film in the long-running horror franchise established by the great Sam Raimi, is pacing ahead of 2013’s Evil Dead reboot, which ended its domestic run with $54 million domestically and just under $100 million worldwide.

An Iconic Classic Nabbed a Top Five Finish

The fourth spot this weekend went to John Wick: Chapter 4. The action sequel added $4.8 million, pushing its running domestic total to $175 million. John Wick 4 is now the highest-grossing movie of the action franchise both domestically and worldwide. But the big highlight of the week is Disney’s 40th anniversary re-release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, which is doing gangbusters, essentially in limited release. Playing in under 500 domestic theaters, the classic film — the third in the original Star Wars trilogy — grossed $4.7 million, for a per-theater average of more than $10,000. This is good for a fifth place finish on the weekend chart. Return of the Jedi grossed around $250 million domestically in its original 1983 run, but has since been re-released multiple times, pushing its grand total to over $310 million. Adjusted for inflation, this figure is closer to $850 million.

Elsewhere, Focus Features’ action comedy Polite Society is looking at an $800,000 opening weekend, director Ari Aster’s divisive Beau Is Afraid passed $5.6 million domestically, and India’s Tamil-language historical epic Ponniyin Selvan: II debuted inside the top 10 with $3.6 million from around 600 theaters. Next weekend will see the release of Disney’s trilogy-capping Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which is expected to debut with around $130 million. You can watch a clip from the movie below, and stay tuned to Collider for more updates.