With only two films in the franchise, Illumination’s Super Mario movies — that’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and The Super Mario Bros. Movie — have officially crossed the $2 billion mark. And that’s not considering that the Super Mario sequel is still in theaters and continues to accumulate impressive sums at the global box office. Releasing in the United States on April 1, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has remained at the top of the box office leaderboards for three weeks at this point, both domestically and internationally. The film will likely be supplanted in its fourth week by the biopic musical Michael, but its cumulative ticket sales will likely remain impressive as many fans are waiting for it to hit the $1 billion threshold.
Illumination’s Super Mario movies are already setting records
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie stands as the highest-grossing film in 2026 so far, above Project Hail Mary, Pegasus 3, Hoppers, and Wuthering Heights. As noted by Box Office Mojo, the film has earned $755 million worldwide by April 23, a total that is split evenly between its domestic haul ($361 million) and international cume ($393 million).
When this impressive sum is added to The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $1.36 billion global box office total, the franchise has earned $2.115 billion. As a point of reference, this means that these two movies is already in twelfth place on the list of the highest-grossing animated franchises and film series, finding itself between the Madagascar movies ($2.266 billion) and the Finding Nemo movies ($1.97 billion). In tenth place on the list is the Kung Fu Panda franchise at $2.366 billion, so if The Super Mario Galaxy Movie does cross the $1 billion mark, these Super Mario movies will make the top ten here.
On the domestic front, this pair of films have amassed a total of $936 million, which places Illumination’s Super Mario franchise in the Top 40 franchises of all time, according to a BoxOfficeMojo index on gross sales in the US and Canada (the franchise is labelled as “Super Mario Bros. Animated” on the list). That said, it’s difficult for the Super Mario franchise to compete here given that there are only two releases that count for it so far. But compared to other franchises that also only include two movies, it sits in second place between Inside Out’s $1 billion and Frozen’s $878 million.
Given that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is expected to remain in theaters until June, the rankings for the franchise on the aforementioned lists will likely rise. In particular, the sequel’s international box office totals are projected to take a huge leap forward in late April in early May, as it will finally release in Japan on April 24 in time with the country’s Golden Week holiday and in South Korea on April 29. The Super Mario Bros. Movie had a similar release schedule in 2023, when the film was released in Japan on April 28 and in South Korea in April 26. At the end of its theatrical run in those two regions, it grossed $101 million in Japan and $18 million in South Korea.
In another advantage, the film doesn’t have that many competitors either as far as family-friendly movies are concerned, with the main exception being The Mandalorian & Grogu releasing on May 22 and Toy Story 5 coming out on June 19. It’s not looking like the sequel will earn as much as its predecessor in part because of its lower review scores, something which has surprised Nintendo veteran Shigeru Miyamoto, but its galactic, world-hopping lore allows for Illumination to expand the cinematic Nintendo universe beyond the third Super Mario movie (almost assuredly featuring Daisy) with perhaps a standalone film for the movie’s breakout star, Fox McCloud.
