When you think of top feature film animation, your first thought would be Disney after all the years of box office hits between Disney Animation and Pixar Studios. But would it surprise you if we told you that since 2019 three of the four years the top-grossing animated feature film belongs to Illumination?

Now in 2023, that trend will look to continue as according to Variety, Universal & Illumination’s ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is on track to become the biggest-ever opening for an animated film worldwide. A title that is for the moment still held by 2019’s ‘Frozen II’, the last time Disney Animation held the top spot.

Currently, ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is on moving toward a $195 million opening in North America over the five-day Easter weekend frame. This is ahead of the $150 million projections that were reported at the beginning of the week. Globally it’s looking to super-smash its way to the top spot with a $368 million debut. This would put it ahead of ‘Frozen’ 2 which made $358 million over a traditional three-day weekend.

In 2022, Illumination also had the top animated offering with ‘Minions: The Rise of Gru’, which ended up grossing over $939 million worldwide and enough for the 5th spot overall at the box office ahead of films like ‘Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’ and ‘The Batman’. The two Disney offerings ‘Strange World’ and ‘Lightyear’ together didn’t even reach half of that amount together grossing a little over $300 million.

In 2021 the top animated spot went to Illumination’s ‘Sing 2’ at over $408 million followed by Disney Animation’s ‘Encanto’ with a worldwide take of over $256 million. Pixar’s ‘Luca’ was not released in theaters domestically, instead offered to their streaming service Disney+. In 2020, the top spot went to the anime ‘Demon Slayer the Movie: Mugen Train’.

2023 still has some great animated films to be released in theaters including Sony’s ‘Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse’ and Disney Pixar’s Elemental. We’ll have to see if they can compete with the pair of beloved plumbers.

‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ is now playing in theaters everywhere.