Illumination and Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is enjoying a stellar second weekend, soaring past the $300 million mark domestically and $600 million worldwide.
The sequel is the first Hollywood pic of the year to accomplish either milestone. It’s expected to top the weekend chart with nearly $70 million in domestic ticket sales for an estimated North American tally of $308.1 million through Sunday. Overseas, it is on course to earn another $90 million from 81 markets for a foreign tally of $327 million.
Amazon MGM Studios’ Project Hail Mary, now in its fourth outing, also remains a force of nature. The Ryan Gosling-led space adventure looks to earn another $28 million this weekend for a domestic cume in the $258 million range through Sunday.
A24’s provocative film The Drama, starring Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, is holding in better than expected, dropping just 21 percent to $9 million for an early domestic total of $31 million for A24.
That leaves Universal’s new romancer, You, Me & Tuscany, looking at a solid fourth-place finish with an opening in the $8 million range. Social media has been quick to note it is the first rom-com featuring Black leads since 2012’s Think Like a Man.
Will Packer, the film producer behind You, Me & Tuscany, Think Like a Man, Girls Trip, Ride Along and other titles, tells THR that the challenge for getting such features into theaters stems not only from the industry’s “very paltry record when it comes to films that highlight diverse leads,” but also that rom-coms have been deemed as a genre that can be relegated to Netflix streaming offerings or TV films on Lifetime.
Filmmaker Kat Coiro’s movie stars Halle Bailey as a chef who secretly starts living in a vacant Italian villa and develops feelings for the cousin (Regé-Jean Page) of the residence’s owner. The Hollywood Reporter’s review deemed the film an “appealing” escapist fantasy.
Bolstered by a strong A– CinemaScore and a 93 percent audience score on Rotten Tomatoes, the studio anticipates You, Me & Tuscany will hold better than expected.
Numbers will be updated Sunday morning.
