The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Just Convinced Me It’ll Beat The $1.3B Original

In box office terms, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a hard act to follow. The animated film released in spring 2023 with a great deal of anticipation, given it took decades for Nintendo to pursue another adaptation of its popular video game series after 1993's Super Mario Bros. infamously bombed. While the new one didn't exactly wow critics, it clearly delivered enough of what audiences were looking for. The Super Mario Bros. Movie ended its theatrical run having earned $1.36 billion, good for second-most of the year behind Barbie.

Three years later, its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, is set to release on April 1. Going into this year, I had no doubt it would be successful – but repeating the original's performance seemed like too tall an order. It's tough to get to the $1 billion benchmark these days, and this one doesn't have the pent-up excitement for a Mario movie that supercharged the original. I expected Galaxy to be a big hit, likely one of the biggest of the year, but ultimately fall short of its predecessor.

After having seen the new trailer, however, I'm now convinced I was wrong. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is going to out-earn The Super Mario Bros. Movie, and possibly contend for the title of highest-grossing movie of 2026.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie Is A Big Expansion Of The Previous Movie

Yoshi, Mario and Luigi in Super Mario Galaxy Movie

On Rotten Tomatoes, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has a significant gap between its critics and audience scores: 59% to 95%, respectively. But that difference is mostly about priorities. Reviewers weren't too pleased with the thin plotting and criticized the heavy reliance on Easter eggs, but general audiences weren't deterred by the former and generally appreciated the latter. The movie delivered a fun time while staying true to the world of Mario, and that was enough for people to come out smiling.

But is it enough to get people running to the theater, when they could wait for it to become available at home? I wasn't so sure. And if even some of the viewers who were curious enough to see the first movie weren't so enamored with it, the second one would experience a box office decline.

The first trailer, released back in November, seemed to support my hunch. It focuses on a lot of elements that stuck out from the original, from the principal characters to the animation style and sense of humor, while highlighting a handful of key additions. The message is pretty standard sequel material: more of what you liked from the first one, with a few new wrinkles.

The second trailer, released on January 26, is entirely different. This time, as part of a strategy that highlights the addition of Yoshi, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie leans into just how much new ground it covers. The prevailing feelings as Mario and Luigi bounce between worlds are of exploration and adventure. The reactions I've seen so far have excitedly picked apart the various game references and familiar characters joining the cast. I went from thinking of this sequel as a safe level-up to an ambitious expansion of scope.

And if I did, others will, too. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie now looks like the kind of sequel that can recapture viewers who didn't love the original movie, but would be interested in an even deeper dive into the games. Given it's also getting a head start on the summer blockbusters and will have multiple weeks without a serious box office challenger, I'd wager this ends up one of the biggest hits of the year.