By Ben Miller
For the third straight week, The Super Mario Bros. Movie ran away with the weekend box office, this time to the tune of $59.9 million. That's good for the 7th-best third weekend in history. The domestic total currently sits at $436 million with a matching number overseas. At $870 million and climbing, expect it to become a billion dollar film (and probably franchise) in the upcoming weeks. Couterprogramming did pretty good for the horror sequel Evil Dead Rise with a solid $24.5 million haul. That's equivalent to its 2013 predecessor, which ended at around $54 million. With a $19 million budget, it once again shows that horror is the most profitable of genres...
| Weekend Box Office (actuals) April 21st-23rd 🔺 = new or expanding / ★ = Recommended |
|
| WIDE (Over 800 Screens) | LIMITED / PLATFORM |
 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE |
 SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS |
|
1 THE SUPER MARIO BROS. MOVIE $59.9 (cum. $436) 4,350 screens |
1 🔺 SOMEWHERE IN QUEENS $671k *NEW* 602 screens |
|
2 🔺 EVIL DEAD RISE $24.5 *NEW* 3,402 screens |
2 NEFARIOUS $631k (cum. $2.4) 757 screens |
|
3 🔺 GUY RITCHIE'S THE COVENANT $6.4 *NEW* 2,611 screens |
3 🔺★ SHOWING UP $199k (cum. $416k) 85 screens |
|
4 JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 4 $5.8 (cum. $168.9) 2,685 screens |
4 HOW TO BLOW UP A PIPELINE $157k (cum. $601k) 530 screens |
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5 ★ DUNGEONS & DRAGONS: HONOR AMONG THIEVES $5.5 (cum. $82.3) 2,960 screeens |
5 WILD LIFE $51k (cum. $119k) 14 screens |
|
6 ★ AIR $5.4 (cum. $41.8) 3,507 screens |
6 🔺★ JOYLAND $38k (cum. $84k) 8 screens |
 BEAU IS AFRAID |
 JOYLAND |
|
7 THE POPE'S EXORCIST $3.4 (cum. $15.0) 3,178 screens |
7 ★ A THOUSAND AND ONE $25k (cum. $3.38) 33 screens |
|
8 RENFIELD $3.3 (cum. $13.8) 3,378 screens |
8 SWEETWATER $22k (cum. $528k) 207 screens |
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9 🔺BEAU IS AFRAID $2.8 (cum. $3.1) 965 screens |
9 ★ THE LOST KING $19.5k (cum. $1.16) 38 screens |
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10 SUZUME $1.6 (cum. $8.4) 2,170 screens |
10 🔺 LITTLE RICHARD: I AM EVERYTHING $15k *NEW* 19 screens |
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11 🔺 CHEVALIER $1.5 *NEW* 1,275 screens |
11 🔺 OTHER PEROPLE'S CHILDREN $12.6k *NEW* 3 screens |
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12 MAFIA MAMMA $514k (cum. $3.3) 1,613 screens |
12 🔺CARMEN $10.8k *NEW* 3 screens |
Elsewhere, the much discussed Ari Aster film Beau is Afraid expanded to just under 1,000 screens and did a bit under $3,000 per screen. Impressive considering the response and length. The Kelvin Harrison-starring Chevalier only managed $1.5 million in a smaller, though wide release. On the limited/platform side, Ray Romano's directorial debut Somewhere in Queens opened quietly with less than $1 million on 600 screens.
Next Weekend - Further Mario counterprogramming is planned for next week with the sports biopic Big George Foreman and the Judy Blume adaptation Are You There God, It's Me Margaret. We also have the limited release of the Sundance hit Polite Society and the Nazi killing World War II action film Sisu. Expect Mario to win the week again.
What did you see this weekend? My own Oscar completism is not nearly as complete as Baby Clyde's, but I was able to knock out 1946's The Killers as well as the 1994 version of Little Women. I also watched the AppleTV+ Ghosted (don't recommend) and the aforementioned Are You There God? It's Me Margaret (which I can't recommend enough).