After ‘Mario’ Madness, Will Animation Stay Strong at Summer Box Office?

In its fourth week of release, The Super Mario Bros. Movie hasnt set the bar just for animated films in the post-pandemic era but potentially for the summer season ahead.

The first film of 2023 and first animated film since 2019s Frozen 2 to clear $1 billion globally, Super Mario Bros. from Minions studio Illumination and distributor Universal has spent four consecutive weeks as the No. 1 movie domestically.

A run like that is already difficult to pull off. Looking back through 2000, less than 20 films have spent at least four consecutive weeks in the No.1 spot, per Comscore data.

Even more staggering: No animated film besides Super Mario Bros. has achieved such a milestone since Pixars Toy Story, which was No. 1 for six straight weeks upon its 1995 release feel old yet?

Super Mario Bros. will almost certainly yield this position to Disney and Marvels Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, which kicks off the early summer season Friday. Marvel films always net substantial openings, but with gross dropping off sharply for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania after its February debut, Guardians has much to make up for in proving MCU films can still show off the kind of staying power that Mario exhibited throughout the spring.

Luckily for Guardians, May is clear of animated movies. But as the biggest family-driven distributor of the major studios, Disney may just find itself in steep competition with an array of animated competitors this summer.

Disney-owned Pixar does have new IP Elemental bowing June 16, the second film to break the spell of Pixar titles having gone straight to Disney+ after Toy Story origin story Lightyear had a subpar summer run last year, partially due to releasing just before Universal and Illuminations Minions sequel.

But Elemental is sandwiched between Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, the highly anticipated sequel to Sonys surprise 2018 animated hit that will kick off June, and Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken from Dreamworks Animation and Universal, which bows at the end of the month alongside Disneys fifth Indiana Jones entry.

With that many options for the family, it will be difficult for Elemental to stand out for very long, especially if Across the Spider-Verse maintains significant momentum throughout its June run. Serious turnout for that film could also spell trouble for Disneys live-action The Little Mermaid remake, which will close out the May calendar. 2019s photorealistic CGI remake of The Lion King was a major hit for Disney, so similar success for The Little Mermaid could in turn eat into Elementals debut.

July is clear of animated movies and is bound to be dominated by the first of two final Mission: Impossible films starring Tom Cruise, following Top Gun: Mavericks chokehold of the latter summer months in 2022. Theoretically, July would be a good time for one of the studios to offer families something mellower than Cruises high-octane action, but Disney only has a live-action Haunted Mansion reboot scheduled at the end of the month.

Haunted Mansion in turn risks competition from Paramounts animated Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem in the first weekend of August. Directed by Jeff Rowe, one of the filmmakers behind Sony and Netflixs critically acclaimed The Mitchells vs. the Machines, its the kind of film that could lead the quieter weeks of August if Haunted Mansion doesnt do much for family audiences.

One big reason Super Mario Bros. did so well was because of how the early 2023 calendar was otherwise led by films targeting older audiences, like John Wick 4, Creed 3 and Scream 6, with superhero fatigue ultimately catching up to Warner Bros. and DCs Shazam! Fury of the Gods in March.

Should the summers animated offerings impress at the box office, it will be a worthy reminder for studios to keep the year flush with animated films going forward.