Mario Movie
Image: Nintendo, Illumination

The Mario Movie finally made its debut in Nintendo's homeland last week and it's got off to an incredibly strong start.

According to a report by 4Gamer.net (via Nintendo Everything), the movie banked around $13.5 million in its opening weekend and had made around $16 million in total by Monday (about 2,182,490,230 yen). This apparently makes it the best Illumination movie opening in Japan ever.

It's managed to outperform the opening weekends of Despicable Me 3 (just over $5 million) and The Secret Life of Pets (about $7 million). It's also now the best weekend movie debut for Universal in Japan - surpassing Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (making $11 million in its opening weekend).

Last, but not least, the Mario Movie is also the fastest-selling movie for Universal in the country - reaching two billion yen faster than any of the studio's previous releases.

This update follows the news last weekend that the Mario Movie has now crossed $1 billion at the global box office. If you want to see what the Japanese version of the Mario Movie is like, there'll be special screenings taking place in North America.

Have you been to see the Mario Movie yet? Leave a comment below.

[source 4gamer.net, via nintendoeverything.com]