April has been the month of Mario Galaxy on the big screens, with millions of Nintendo fanatics flocking to cinemas to watch the big N’s latest animated movie. The Mario Galaxy Movie has only been out for a few weeks, but it has already made a big splash at the box office. Although Galaxy has not quite eclipsed the launch of the Super Mario Bros. Movie, it has gone close and is already the biggest box-office hit of 2026.
Updated box office figures confirm that the Super Mario Galaxy Movie has already grossed more than $600 million globally. Nintendo’s latest animated movie has currently reached the $629 million mark, which amounts to the biggest worldwide film opening of 2026. Thus, the Mario Galaxy Movie has smashed its $110 million production budget to make it another big hit for Nintendo and Illumination.
The Mario Galaxy Movie also set another milestone during its opening weekend, in which it raked in $372 million globally from cinema ticket sales. With that, Super Mario became the first animated film series to twice eclipse the $350 million mark for opening weekends. However, Mario Galaxy’s opening weekend still fell slightly short of the first Super Mario Bros Movie.
So, it is clear that the Mario Galaxy Movie has already been a hit from a commercial perspective. However, the media reviews of Nintendo’s MG film have generally been negative. The Mario Galaxy Movie has an average Metascore of 37, which is lower than the original animated film. Critics have panned the movie for having a shallow plot, over-reliance on Nintendo nostalgia, weak narrative, and underdeveloped characters.
Yet, such reviews contrast with the somewhat more positive general audience reception. More than 1,000 cinema goers have rated the Mario Galaxy Movie on Metacritic, and the film currently has an average user score of 7.8. There was a similar divide between the media critics and the general audience reception to the original Super Mario Bros animated film.
Nintendo and Illumination have evidently got something right by delivering a movie that is reasonably in tune with general audience expectations rather than those of film critics. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is a colorful and fun film adaptation with stunning animated visuals that effectively capture the vibrant look of the game. General audiences have embraced the high-energy and visually stunning nostalgia of the MG movie, while critics have dinged it for being a shallow film with little narrative cohesion.
Nintendo and Illumination will likely care little about that with their Mario Galaxy Movie steadily heading towards another potential $1 billion global finish. However, negative media reviews will probably have at least a slight impact on the movie’s box office performance. Nintendo has yet to release a Mario movie that is as good as the best games in its flagship platformer series.
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