Here we go! The new Super Mario Galaxy film achieves the best start of the year in France

315,000 admissions in 1 day for the new animated film distributed by Universal. The phenomenon has already started.

He took a mushroom and is already hitting the box office!

As expected, Mario got off to a flying start in French theaters. A way boost Mario Kart (when you press one second before the green light) which allows the Illumination and Nintendo film to achieve the best first day of 2026 in France: 315,000 spectators have already seen Super Mario Galaxy (previews included). It’s stronger than Marsupilami by Philippe Lacheau, which reached 308,329 tickets last February after its first day.

It must be said that the film is very widely distributed: Mario and Luigi have fun in more than 900 theaters and 4,200 screenings have been shown Super Mario Galaxy yesterday, which makes it the most widely distributed novelty on the first day since Covid (ahead of Avatar: The Way of Water and its 4,000 screenings).

As an obvious warning signal, Mario had already made the best start to the first Parisian sessions on Wednesday morning, recording 4,466 entries, the best score at the 2 p.m. in Paris since Zootopia 2 last November (5,633) and even before Avatar: Fire and Ash in December (4,086).

Super Mario Galaxy will undoubtedly be one of the big hits of the year. Maybe even more than Super Mario Bros. in 2023, which ended at 7.3 million admissions. Already, the sequel does better: Super Mario Bros. posted 281,442 entries after one day… but faced competition from The Three Musketeers: D’Artagnan released the same day.

Excellent start in France before, certainly, a thunderous opening in the United States, where the film is released this Friday. According to predictions, Super Mario Galaxy should debut at more than 180 million dollars across the Atlantic and achieve the best start of the year 2026 at the US box office, far ahead Last Chance Project (80 million).

Yes, Nintendo’s plumber brothers are on the verge of unclogging the global box office. But just behind, Zendaya and Robert Pattinson cannot be pitied: for its first day in French theaters, The Drama attracted more than 38,000 spectators, a very good launch for this strange romantic comedy from A24.