It was always going to be a massive hit, but what does the success of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie mean for future Switch 2 games.

When the first Super Mario animated movie launched in 2023, it was met with a critical drubbing yet was so beloved by audiences that it became the most profitable film of the year and one of the highest grossing animated movies ever made.

Its sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, has so far been met with even harsher reviews (its Rotten Tomatoes score is 42% compared to the first movie’s 59%), but that’s done nothing to deter fans or hamper its box office performance.

It only came out in cinemas yesterday (Wednesday, April 1) and has yet to release in Japan, but it’s not only have had a stronger opening than the first movie but the biggest opening day of any movie so far this year.

According to Deadline, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has made at least $34 million (£26 million) in its first day, which is more than the $31.7 million (£24 million) the original Mario movie made on its first day.

It’s also surpassed Ryan Gosling sci-fi movie Project Hail Mary’s opening day earnings, which made $33.1 million when it launched on March 19.

Deadline notes that The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has also had the best April Wednesday opening of all time, which is an oddly specific record. The question now is what sort of legs the movie will have but with little in the way of competition in the next few weeks it’s likely to continue to do very well.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie grossed $1,360,847,665 (about £1.03 billion) by the end of 2023, making it the second highest grossing movie of the year behind the live action Barbie movie.

Currently, the highest grossing movie of 2026 is Chinese sports comedy Pegasus 3 at $632,040,000 (£479 million), with Project Hail Mary in second place at $330,412,913 (£250 million).

If The Super Mario Galaxy Movie makes as much money as its predecessor, that would handily make it one of the biggest movies of 2026. Distributor Universal Pictures is said to be forecasting the sequel will make $186 million (about £141 million) in its first five days.

That’s less than the $204.6 million (about £155 million) the first movie made in the same time frame, which suggests its total earnings, while likely still massive, won’t reach the same dizzying highs as the first movie.

What will be interesting is what kind of impact the movie’s success will have on game sales. Nintendo purposefully re-released both Super Mario Galaxy games last year to drum up excitement for the movie, so they’ll no doubt see a bump in sales.

We won’t know until Nintendo shares a update itself, in a future financial report, but it’d make sense as Nintendo reported a boost in sales for Mario related games after the first movie came out.

Nintendo had a new Mario game prepped that year, in the form of Super Mario Bros. Wonder, which was announced and launched several months after the movie.

Surprisingly, that doesn’t seem to be the case this year. Granted, Nintendo hasn’t shared firm plans for the second half of 2026, but it was recently rumoured that the next big Mario platformer isn’t until at least 2027.

Instead, the new movie does more to promote Star Fox, of all things, through protagonist Fox McCloud’s cameo, with a new Star Fox game reportedly planned for this summer.

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