Opening Weekend Forecast: £15M – £20M
Theatrical Total Forecast: £50M – £60M million
The U.K. and Irish box office is set to power up this weekend with the release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, predicted by U.K.-based cinema advertising company Pearl & Dean to secure the biggest opening of 2026 so far. When Italian plumbing duo Mario and Luigi last burst onto screens in 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, they left with a whopping £55 million at the box office—and we see no reason the highly anticipated sequel can’t repeat such runaway success.
The trailers for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie lean into the elements that made its predecessor a hit: colourful animation, vibrant worlds to explore, and buckets upon buckets of nostalgia. In an IP-obsessed industry nostalgia is valuable currency, and Mario has arguably more of it than anyone else. Forty years old as of 2025, the franchise has consistently been part of the zeitgeist in the decades since, securing fans across generations—and making The Super Mario Galaxy Movie a true four-quadrant film.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie‘s biggest audience will come from families, and an Easter holiday release date will help ensure they come out in force. Furthermore, the film faces no real competition in the coming weeks, which should help with holdovers. That said, this year has one of the most stacked family slates of recent years, with Toy Story 5, Minions & Monsters, and Disney’s live-action Moana all coming out this summer. Given the current cost-of-living crisis, families may have to ration their trips to the cinema by opting to see fewer titles or avoiding repeat viewings.
Furthermore, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie may not enjoy quite the same pent-up demand as its predecessor, which was the first Mario Bros. screen adaptation since 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros. starring Bob Hoskins. Even so, with all the momentum this sequel has gathered the question isn’t whether The Super Mario Galaxy Movie will succeed, but how high it will soar.
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