Illumination/Nintendo/Universal’s Super Mario Galaxy Movie came in higher with a No. 1 third weekend of $35M, -49%, after a better than expected Saturday near $17M. Running cume by end of today is $355.2M.

While this movie along with Project Hail Mary ($20.4M fifth weekend, -15%, cume $285M, now ahead of Dune: Part Two which finaled at $282M stateside) have been the anchors of spring much like Sinners and A Minecraft Movie were a year ago, it was always known that this sequel would be a bit front-loaded with slightly lesser audience exits than the first one. Super Mario Bros declined -35% in its third frame taking its running cume to $436M. Not a big deal, Super Mario Galaxy Movie clocked past $747M global take and is now officially the highest grossing movie of 2026, squashing China’s Pegasus 3 ($647.8M). All in now, the Mario Bros movies count $2 billion as of this weekend. Super Mario Galaxy Movie is booked at 4,170 theaters while Project Hail Mary is playing at 3,820 theaters.

In third place is New Line/Blumhouse/Atomic Monster’s Lee Cronin’s The Mummy with $5.2M on Friday, an estimated $5M Saturday on its way to a 3-day of $13M+ at 3,304 theaters (we’re waiting on Warners offcial number). CinemaScore is C+ which is better than Blumhouse’s Wolf Man (C-) but under pre-pandemic’s Invisible Man (B+) in its monster movie revamp. Audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is now at 77% with critics disliking mummified children at 45%. Seventy-eight total markets have generated $7.9M in foreign box office so far.

Why is Lee Cronin’s name in the title aside from distinguishing this from Universal’s Mummy franchise? For horror fans, if you know, you know. It’s a direct sell to them by Blumhouse and Atomic Monster; Cronin directed New Line’s 2023 hit Evil Dead Rise, which was saved from HBO Max and sent to theatrical grossing $147.1M around the globe and $46M net profit in its first cycle. The movie was originally pitched at Universal, however, they had their own Mummy revamp with Brendan Fraser and Rachel Weisz in development. So Blumhouse and Atomic Monster walked their Mummy over to New Line. Next to other horror films that tried to make a go this spring, i.e. Ready or Not 2 ($9M) and They Will Kill You ($4.9M), this is a pretty good start for the $22M net production. Let the record show, your honor, that the opening for Lee Cronin’s The Mummy is also higher than the starry auteurish The Bride! ($7M).

Social media reach across TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X and Instagram was at 265M before opening says RelishMix, 26% horror genre norms and post Covid scary pics such as 28 Years Later (225M), Smile 2 (159M) and M3GAN 2.0 (263M). Mummy cast members are fully socially activated, although with moderate reach including Veronica Falcón who brings 128K fans, Lila Kosta at 120K, Jack Rayner at 82K, plus director Cronin at 39k.

Magnolia’s Bob Odenkirk action movie, Normal, is coming in at $2.65M for the 3-day per estimates after a Friday of $1M including $250K previews. Thelma, the distrib’s previous wide entry, opened to $2.3M. C+ CinemaScore. Whatever money is being made for the 65% leaning dude movie is coming from South, Midwest and West. The AMC Century City is now the pic’s top grossing location with close to $9K. The 18-34 was 36%, so it tells you how older skewing this is with 44% over 45.

Overall weekend is coming in at $93.6M, which is 32% from the same frame a year ago. Don’t get cynical, or jaded, because it was Easter at this time last year when Sinners debuted to $48M.

via Deadline