Super Mario Galaxy movie expected to make $160 million in opening ticket sales

Nintendo is expected to hit it big with the new Mario movie, with estimates putting the film at a $160 million opening in the US--the biggest of 2026.

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The new Super Mario Galaxy movie could make up to $160 million in its first five days of domestic ticket sales, Deadline reports.

The film is set to replicate--and potentially exceed--the first Super Mario movie's success, which amounted to $204 million in its first five days. The original movie also generated $1 billion in cumulative ticket sales in just 26 days' time, with earnings roughly split between North America and the rest of the world.

Nintendo has many different Mario games and merch ready to take advantage of the film's transmedia opportunity. The company has a multitude of products to sell consumers who are eager to continue the adventure at home or on-the-go, including a myriad of games and experiences across the Switch and newer Switch 2.

The same year that the Super Mario Bros movie released, we noted that Nintendo had raked in $300 million in royalties for the corresponding half-year period (April - September 2023), and sold over 6 million video games based on its Super Mario franchise--and all of these games were catalog, evergreen titles at the time, not new releases.

Consumers have access to those same games and more, thanks to the variety of Mario games launched in the interim, including Super Mario Wonder--which launched in October, just a month after the half-year period's cut-off period in September--as well as ten other games featuring Mario or various characters from the series.

In short, Nintendo is primed and ready to exploit the sales and engagement opportunities that the film presents, especially now that it is operating two simultaneous video game platforms in parallel with one another.