Disney, you have a problem. Universal / Illumination looks to have toppled ‘Frozen 2’ as the biggest worldwide opening of an animated film at $368 million. ‘Frozen 2’ did $358 million when it was released. It’s only Saturday, and those numbers could change before Sunday night.

Super Mario Bros will likely hit nearly $195 million for its 5-day opening. According to Deadline, that would make it the second-largest Wednesday-Saturday total after ‘Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,’ which hit $200 million.

It’s also the second-largest opening for an animated film in the United States and Canada, beating ‘Incredibles 2.’

The film also beat Sonic the Hedgehog‘s three-day opening of $71M.

Mario has taken the spot as the biggest global and domestic 3-day opening for 2023, beating Marvel’s ‘Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’ by more than 2X. A cartoon beat a Marvel movie.

Disney needs to be worried as Mario and his friends are destroying the box office totals of their recent animated offerings. ‘Strange World’ opened to a five-day total of only $18.6M, while ‘Lightyear’ kicked off with $135M globally.

Recently Disney has found itself trailing behind Illumination. Illumination’s ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’ almost hit $1 billion ($939.6M), and Super Mario Bros could beat that total.

What does Disney announce? Another tired live-action adaptation, this time of ‘Moana.”

Bob Iger needs to return the company to its creative and innovative roots and move away from the assimilative and tired if Disney wants to regain a foothold in animation again.

One thing is for sure, a Nintendo cinematic universe is going to happen, and it’s going to be successful.

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