Illumination Entertainment’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” (Universal) concludes its sixth weekend with a US/Canada gross of $536 million. This is by far the best box office haul for 2023 so far, with a real possibility that it could finish at number one for the year. If it reaches $600 million, Universal says, it would surpass “Incredibles 2” (2018) as the biggest animated release ever.
This is not true.
Look, “SMB” is an amazing achievement. Heading into its sixth weekend, the final domestic total is expected to be between $560 million and $580 million and $1.25 billion – $1.3 billion worldwide, double anticipated expectations and against a production cost of $100 million. It’s a phenomenal result.
What’s especially impressive is how it stacks up among recent animated releases. It outsold all Pixar films other than ‘The Incredibles 2’ (which includes all ‘Toy Story’ entries), all Disney non-Pixar releases (the two ‘Frozen’ films are their best performers), and all ‘Despicable me” / Hits of “Minions”.
It’s an incredible achievement, and it’s not even a sequel. Other than the first “Avatar,” it’s the first non-franchise/non-sequel release this century to surpass $500 million. Universal has successfully marketed it as a multi-faceted title, a strategy other studios are sure to implement with well-known brands that can add nostalgia beyond its core appeal to kids and families.
At the bottom of this article we list two charts. The first is the 10 highest-grossing animated releases ever in the United States and Canada, based on the reported receipts at the time of their release. The second estimates the numbers if ticket prices for all movies were what they are now, adjusted for inflation. The lists are radically different.
“Greatest movie of all time” claims are a constant problem in box office reports. There’s a huge bias towards using unadjusted receipts because it allows for 19 of the 20 biggest films to be released in the current century and that’s good for business. Studios love to brag; fans like to see their favorites hit the benchmarks.
More striking is the denial of the history of cinema and the distortion of reality.
Especially the other categories of films, animation has managed to sustain interest in the classics of the 20th century. More than any other manufacturer, Walt Disney understood their long-term value. His cartoon titles played in theaters for limited periods before being pulled from circulation. They were later re-released as if they were first-run films.
The wisdom of this approach is reflected in the list of the greatest animated films. Seven of the top 10 adjusted, led by “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” were Disney films released before 1970. None of these seven appear on the unadjusted list of the 200 highest-grossing films of all time. (“The Lion King” as #33 is the only one included).
Animated titles aren’t the only ones to ignore reality. Unadjusted, “SMB” is now the second best performer of all time among Universal’s releases. When it outsold “ET the Extra-Terrestrial,” the studio made no mention that the average ticket price for the 1983 film was $3.15, not the National Association of Theater Owners’ 2023 estimate of $ 10.53.
Spoiler alert: “ET” is still, by far, the biggest film ever released by Universal. The number of tickets sold dwarfs the number of tickets sold to “SMB”. At approximately $1.3 billion in adjusted domestic gross, “ET” is #4 all-time. On this more accurate basis, with “Jaws” at #7, the studio has two of the top seven hits in history. No studio has more, although 20th Century Fox and Paramount also have two each.
Unadapted, the best Universal can do is issue #10 for “Jurassic World.” If you are concerned about bragging rights, stick to the revised chart.
Everyone hails “SMB”. But don’t fall for the distorted reality.
The 10 highest grossing animated films (unregulated)
- 1. Incredibles 2 (2018) $608.6 million
- 2. The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) $526.0 million
- 3. Finding Dory (2016) $486.3 million
- 4. Frozen II (2019) $477.4 million
- 5. Shrek 2 (2004) $441.2 million
- 6. Toy Story 4 (2019) $434.0 million
- 7. The Lion King (1994) $422.8 million
- 8. Toy Story 3 (2010) $415.0 million
- 9. Frozen (2013) $401.0 million
- 10. Finding Nemo (2003) $380.8 million
The 10 highest grossing animated films (adjusted for inflation)
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) $1.019 billion
- One Hundred and One Dalmatians (1961) $932.7 million
- The Lion King (1994) $833.1 million
- Fantasia (1941) $774.9 million
- Incredibles 2 (2018) $697.4 million
- The Jungle Book (1967) $687.5 million
- Sleeping Beauty (1959) $678.2 million
- Shrek 2 (2004) $651.5 million
- Pinocchio (1940) $628.9 million
- Bambi (1941) $594.6 million
