Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Project Hail Mary Smash Box Office Records With a Historic One-Two Punch

Well, it looks like the box office bounce-back isn’t slowing down—actually, it’s charging ahead, thanks to two giant 2026 releases. If you still thought theatrical movies were on life support, buckle up.

The Mario and Gosling Juggernaut

Here’s the basic rundown: both The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and Project Hail Mary just smashed through some seriously big financial milestones. We’re talking numbers so hefty, even Hollywood’s most optimistic accountants probably had to check their math twice.

• Universal and Illumination’s Super Mario Galaxy sequel has muscled past $300 million domestic and $600 million global in just two weekends. The second weekend pull? $69 million in the US—a 48% drop from opening, which, in blockbuster land, is actually pretty solid. Overseas, it scooped up another $84 million across 88 markets. That brings the grand total to $628.8 million worldwide. Yes, you read that right.
• Meanwhile, Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary, led by Ryan Gosling (he’s everywhere lately), has now crossed the $500 million global mark in its fourth weekend out. Domestic gross was $24.5 million (just a 33% dip from last weekend); international added $30.6 million, for a shiny worldwide tally of $510.6 million.

This Isn’t Just a Fluke

If you dig into the numbers, these two movies haven’t just had good weekends—they’ve basically pulled the entire box office to its feet. According to industry trackers, by April 8, the domestic box office hit $2.113 billion for 2026 so far. That’s up a hefty 23.5% compared to the same stretch last year. In fact, it’s the strongest kickoff to a year since before COVID ever shut the lights out—though, to be fair, we’re still not back to the 2019 glory days.

There was a bit of a hiccup the weekend of April 10-12, but that’s mostly because it’s hard to compete with the Minecraft Movie’s numbers from the same timeframe in 2025. Still, overall, 2026 is more than 23% ahead of last year by the same date. That’s not just progress—it’s a legitimate surge.

Perspective, Please

Don’t bust out the champagne yet, though. 'Making comparisons to 2019 and the pre-pandemic era needs to be taken with a grain of salt,' says Comscore’s Paul Dergarabedian. He also points out one of Hollywood’s real headaches right now: 'keeping a robust slate of theatrical films.'

For the record, we still haven’t hit those pre-pandemic highs. In 2019, by this same point, box office revenue was already past $2.6 billion domestically (and that year eventually crossed $10 billion, a figure 2026 hasn’t sniffed yet).

Still, for Hollywood and the people banking on its recovery, these are not minor blips—they’re clear, optimistic signs. Both sequels and sci-fi epics are not just pulling their weight; they’re sprinting ahead, and it actually feels like people want to go to the movies again. Go figure.