Entertainment Movies 'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' to Cross $1 Billion Mark on Sunday The video game adaptation is now the No. 1 animated film since 2019 based on global box office sales By Alexis Jones Alexis Jones Alexis Jones is a writer-reporter at PEOPLE. She has been working at PEOPLE since 2022. Her work has previously appeared on Daily Bruin. People Editorial Guidelines Published on April 30, 2023 07:19PM EDT Photo: Universal Pictures / Illumination The Super Mario Bros. Movie is projected to cross the $1 billion line on Sunday. According to NBCUniversal, the video game adaptation is the 10th animated film in history to achieve this feat and is now the 10th biggest animated film of all-time, beating out Despicable Me 2 and Minions: The Rise Of Gru in the global market. Like its protagonist, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has smashed even more records by topping the global, domestic and international box offices — just 26 days after it was released. It scored the top opening of all time for an animated film, with $377 million in global ticket sales. The animated movie also became Universal Studios' seventh-biggest film ever, and is now both the No. 1 animated film and the fourth-biggest film since 2019 in terms of global box office numbers. The Super Mario Bros. Movie Breaks Record for Biggest Global Box Office Launch for an Animated Film Universal Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE's free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from juicy celebrity news to compelling human interest stories. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, The Super Mario Bros. Movie comes from Nintendo and Illumination, the studio behind the Despicable Me and Minions franchises. The film is now the third title for the latter company to reach the $1 billion mark. Chris Pratt voices Mario, the modest Brooklyn plumber who is accidentally transported to the magical Mushroom Kingdom, where he helps Princess Peach (Anya-Taylor Joy) fight off the evil turtle Bowser (Jack Black). The cast also includes Charlie Day as Luigi, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad and Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong. Super Mario Bros. Now Biggest Video Game Move Ever, Reaches $500M at Global Box Office in 1 Week Leon Bennett/FilmMagic Black, 53, told PEOPLE at the film's Los Angeles premiere earlier this month that he was proud of the project, for which he recorded his performance remotely, entirely over Zoom. "I feel like we really did it. I think we mission-accomplished it. We wanted to make a funny, exciting, action-adventure, and by God, we did it," Black said. "And you know what else we did? We also used all the characters from the Nintendo universe." He continued, "If you like playing Mario Kart or any of those Nintendo video games, when you see this movie, you're going to go, 'Whoa,' because there's a bunch of little Easter eggs that only the gamers will really recognize and really appreciate. I'm really happy about that." The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now in theaters. Close