Glue small magnet on bottom mailbox door.
Put contact sensor on bottom of mailbox outside.
When mailbox opens magnet get close to sensor and activate.
Of course inverse logic applies, sensor shows open when mailbox is closed and closed when door is open.
Or drill hole in back or bottom of mailbox and glue front of motion sensor to mailbox in way that when door is open sensor is illuminated.
I will probably put it on bottom so you don't have to worry about sensor waterproofing
In USA you can't place anything inside mailbox.
Although you own mailbox, postal regulations don't allow you to do so.
Also first recieved package will likely knock sensor out.
You can put sensor from outside but if its visible it will just attract unwanted attention people who passing by.
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How about a light sensor like this? Mount the module on the bottom of the mailbox snd run the sensor wire inside.
Yes - you can simply peel it off and reapply.
Have you looked at using a contact sensor as shown in the post below? If you have a similar style mailbox, this is a very discrete solution that will not be influenced by passers-by.
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Expanding on @ogiewon suggestion. This Iris contact sensor has worked flawlessly for over 2 years now and it’s simply mounted underneath the mailbox with double sided tape. No protection other than the mailbox itself. It works so well I have 5 neighbors subscribing to my “you got mail” alerts because our mail delivery is so unpredictable 
.
Here is my rule that notifies me. It only fires once each day by use of the rule private Boolean. Then I also have a virtual presence sensor flagged so I can check if one of my kids got mail before me.
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I do remember reading that it is “illegal” to put anything inside a mailbox (except mail 
) and that is one reason why I’m going with sensors on the bottom outside.
My sensors are small, and you sort of have to bend down to see them, so I’m thinking they won’t attract a lot of attention. Plus I’m on a dead end street, so not a lot of traffic.
I tried that, but I couldn’t get it to work.
I noticed the mail carrier pulls the door open just a little and quickly throws the mail in.
I couldn’t get the spacing between the sensor and the magnet where it needed to be to work correctly.
My option my not work for you, but posting for others as an option. I have a metal box. I use an Iris v2 motion sensor inside the box with an Iris outlet plugged in outside on the front porch to act as a repeater. Without the repeater the signal would not make it in the house at all, with the repeater it works fine.
What type of magnet are you using? One supplied with contact sensor or something else? You will see a picture in @ogiewon’s post above of mine where I use a small round rare earth magnet purchased at local box store. In other words it doesn’t have to be the supplied contact sensor magnet. I simply stuck it to my metal mailbox door and moved it around until it worked. All I have to do it barely open it and it alerts me.
Have you considered a pair of these?
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Is there a driver available for that? 
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There's a driver, only he's in that snowplow that knocked the mailbox into the ditch.
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I tried a z-wave motion sensor in the mailbox, with a z-wave repeater under the overhang of my roof, but the signal still couldn’t get through. I went with z-wave because supposedly it has a greater range than Zigbee.
Maybe I should try Zigbee?
Are those Z-wave or Zigbee binoculars?
I'm impressed with the distance SmartThings (zigbee) arrival sensor works.
LOL...I think we should be more worried about batteries than protocols. 
Those things look like they must need some serious juice.
Honestly I don’t know if zigbee will work better. I never tried it with zwave.
fwiw, I painted the outlet black so it wouldn’t be noticeable. The motion sensor just sits in the back of the box attached with mounting putty.
This works well for me. I do have an Aeotec repeater in an outdoor receptacle to help my mesh extend to the road. Without it, my mailbox would drop off frequently.
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