LOS ANGELES — It was another big weekend for family films, as “The Super Mario Galaxy Movie” smashed the box office with a domestic haul of $190.8 million.

That five-day total marked the biggest opening weekend in the U.S. and Canada so far this year. Globally, the film from Universal Pictures, Nintendo and Illumination made $372.6 million — the highest debut for a U.S. film this year.

“It was a film for all audiences,” Jim Orr, president of domestic distribution at Universal Pictures, told me Monday. “You don’t have to be a Nintendo insider. It really appealed to everybody.”

The opening weekend success of “Super Mario Galaxy” wasn’t just good news for Universal Pictures. It is yet another auspicious sign of the continued dominance of family films in cinemas.

In each of the last two years, the top domestic movie was a PG-rated film — in 2024, Walt Disney Co. and Pixar’s “Inside Out 2” reigned supreme, while Warner Bros. Pictures’ “A Minecraft Movie” came out on top in 2025 (Disney’s “Zootopia 2,” released in late 2025, ended up edging the domestic revenues for “A Minecraft Movie” in a strong carryover performance into 2026).

Beyond that, a handful of other PG-rated movies have recently cracked the billion-dollar mark in worldwide ticket sales, including the 2023 Universal, Illumination and Nintendo predecessor “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” ($1.4 billion), Disney’s 2024 hit “Moana 2” ($1.1 billion) and 2025’s “Lilo & Stitch” ($1 billion).

These films typically have wide appeal, putting them “perfectly in the sweet spot in terms of their box office potential,” Paul Dergarabedian, head of marketplace trends at Comscore, said in an email.

Although known franchises such as “Super Mario,” “Zootopia” and “Minecraft” have an obvious leg up due to their existing fan bases, original animated films like Sony Pictures Animation’s “Goat” and Disney and Pixar’s “Hoppers” have also had solid runs this year.

That has boosted this year’s domestic box office revenue, which is up 26% from the same period last year, according to Comscore. That’s a welcome reprieve for theaters after they weathered a tough 2025.

And for the rest of the year, the deck is stacked with animated film releases powered by big-name franchises, including Universal and Illumination’s “Minions & Monsters,” Disney and Pixar’s “Toy Story 5” and Warner Bros.‘ “The Cat in the Hat.”

It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago, families were among the last audiences to return to movie theaters due to lingering concerns about COVID-19 pandemic health risks. In fact, 2023’s “Super Mario Bros. Movie” was the first big family blockbuster to succeed in the waning days of the pandemic.

Since then, family films have proved to be a reliable theatrical engine, even as other genres that previously dominated the box office have slowed. The once unstoppable superhero genre seems to have finally hit its ceiling, and action movies are still popular, but being similarly overpowered by PG-rated fare.

“These PG family titles are really a good deal for the box office right now for a good reason,” Orr said. “People want to be out, they want to do something that is exciting and immersive and also economical. It’s a way to build memories.”

David A. Gross, who writes the FranchiseRe movie industry newsletter, isn’t surprised by the popularity of family films. After all, he noted, parents need activities to do with their kids.

“Family movies have a lot of natural, inherent strength,” he told me. “Moviegoing as a habit had really broken during the pandemic, but it’s a positive thing to see how the habit is happening again for these big family movies.”

For “Super Mario,” it also probably helped that the film was based on the 40-year legacy of the Mario Nintendo games — bringing in not just kids, but also their millennial parents and other adults. While 28% of the opening weekend audience was under age 12, and 10% were 13 to 17 years old, a significant portion of adults also were in attendance — 35% were 18 to 34 and 27% were over 35 in age, according to polling surveys by Comscore .

That nostalgia factor has proved to be a powerful marketing tool.

Consider films such as Disney’s 20th Century Studios’ “The Devil Wears Prada 2,” out in May after a 20-year gap since the original movie; or Warner Bros.’ “Practical Magic 2,” which debuts in September and continues the story of the Owens sisters first told in the 1998 film.

The broad appeal of the latest “Super Mario” film is a massive boon for Universal, which has staked a lot on this franchise.

Back in 2015, Universal’s theme parks division announced a partnership with Nintendo to develop attractions based on the video game company’s popular games and characters.

Today, there are two Super Nintendo World lands — one at Universal Studios Hollywood and another at Universal Orlando Resort — where attendees can take photos with Nintendo characters, eat at a Toad-themed cafe, ride attractions and buy plenty of merchandise.

And with the opening weekend performance for “Super Mario Galaxy,” it’s clear that relationship will continue to be very much front and center.

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