well i wouldn't say SSBM wasn't popular, it still was one of the most sold games for the gamecube in Europe. Don't forget that the cube has a lifetime installbase of like only 4.7 Mio in Europe, so 1.14 Mio is infact very good. Of course Mario Kart is way more popular here but im sure that the SSBB numbers will be bigger in the end than those from SSBM. I'm not expecting a spectacular opening week though, i think it will just have very strong and long legs.
Edit: Just look at the numbers from Mario Party, the best selling title before number 8 sold 0.58 Mio in Europe and that was the very first on the N64. It was going downhill from then on until the installment on Wii, which is now almost over 1.5 Mio and still selling, so you can't just jump in any conclusions because of previous numbers
