Evil Dead Rise Scares Up Great Opening Weekend At The Box Office, But Mario Still Won The Day
For the third weekend in a row, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is coming out on top at the box office, with Universal's animated Nintendo adaptation showing absolutely no signs of slowing down. The movie will absolutely hit $1 billion globally now as a matter of when, not if, and soon. But as impressive as that movie's run continues to be (we'll get into that more in a second) this past weekend's big newcomer was "Evil Dead Rise." While the fifth entry in the long-running horror franchise was never truly going to compete for the crown, it exceeded expectations and all but ensured that the series won't stay dead for another decade this time around.
According to The Numbers, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" topped the charts with a third-weekend haul of $59.9 million. That represents a mere 35 percent drop week-to-week, signaling just how starved moviegoers were for a family-friendly film. It also speaks volumes about the characters' place in pop culture. We should expect more Nintendo movies very soon because, as of this writing, the animated flick has earned $878 million worldwide, including a stellar $436 million domestic haul. If the film never made another dime it would easily be one of the biggest movies of the year, but it's still got a long way to go, and will soon join "Top Gun: Maverick" ($1.49 billion) and "Spider-Man: No Way Home" ($1.92 billion) as the only movies to cross the $1 billion mark since the pandemic began.
Though less flashy, director Lee Cronin's "Evil Dead Rise" also did exceptionally well for itself, debuting at $24.5 million. That was better than weekend estimates, which had pegged its take at $23.5 million. Analysts had it taking in anywhere between $15 and $20 million heading into the weekend, so it handily exceeded expectations.
Horror stays winning
Internationally, "Evil Dead Rise" beat early projections as well, taking in another $17.9 million, giving it a fantastic $42.4 million global start. Given that its production budget was pegged between $15 and $19 million, we're looking at an absolute win for Warner Bros. Especially given that the film was originally going to debut directly on HBO Max before the studio thought better of it and gave audiences a chance to hand over their hard-earned money to see the crowd-pleaser with an actual crowd. It didn't quite match the opening weekend take of 2013's "Evil Dead," which opened to $25.7 million on its way to a $97.5 million final total. That said, the outlook is bright, considering that reviews have been kind and it received a B Cinemascore, which is quite good for a horror movie — particularly one this hardcore.
One of the big takeaways here is that horror is continuing to win at almost every turn. Even when certain superhero movies such as "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" are underperforming against expectations, horror is there to hit it out of the park with almost every step up to the plate.
The only real exception in recent memory is "Renfield," which fell to the eighth spot on the charts this past weekend, taking in a mere $3.2 million. Against a budget of $65 million, it has earned just $18 million worldwide thus far.
The key thing here is that the Nic Cage Dracula flick tried to be more of an action-heavy blockbuster (and was priced like one) rather than a horror movie. Meanwhile, "The Pope's Exorcist" added $3.4 million domestically, bringing its worldwide total to $52.1 million. Against an $18 million budget, this is going to be an absolute win for Sony.
And the rest...
The weekend's other big newcomer was director Guy Ritchie's "The Covenant," which is going to go down as a disappointment. Against a reported $55 million budget, the war film starring Jake Gyllenhaal kicked off its run with a mere $6.3 million domestically. No word yet from overseas audiences but this one would need a miracle to pan out for MGM, who is distributing the film. It's Ritchie's second flop in just a matter of weeks, as "Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre" bombed in March. But since "The Gentlemen" made $113 million on a $22 million budget in 2019 and "Wrath of Man" made $104 million against a $40 million budget back in 2021, he'll probably get at least one more before studios pull back entirely from the filmmaker.
Rounding out the top five were "John Wick: Chapter 4" ($5.7 million/$361.2 million worldwide) and Ben Affleck's "Air" ($5.44 million/$68.7 million worldwide). On the subject of "Air," while the film won't sell enough tickets to turn a profit for Amazon, the $90 million biopic is probably going to get near $100 million worldwide before all's said and done, which will bring a lot more attention to it on Prime Video and set it up for a big awards season run later this year
Meanwhile, Ari Aster's "Beau is Afraid" added $2.7 million after expanding into 965 theaters. But it's going to need a lot more than that to turn a profit for A24, as the film's budget is pegged at $35 million. Looking ahead, we've got an interesting weekend coming with "Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret" and "Big George Foreman" entering the fold, as well as the re-release of "Star Wars: Return of the Jedi." Will any of them be able to take down "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" though? Probably not.
Top ten movies at the box office April 21 – 23, 2023
1. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" – $59.9 million
2. "Evil Dead Rise" $24.5 million
3. "The Covenant" – $6.3 million
4. "John Wick: Chapter 4." – $5.7 million
5. "Air" – $5.44 million
6. "Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves" $5.4 million
7. "The Pope's Exorcist" – $3.4 million
8. "Renfield" – $3.25 million
9. "Beau is Afraid" – $2.7 million
10. "Suzume" – $1.6 million