'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' Decimates Worldwide Box Office During Holiday Weekend

Nintendo can finally put all those nightmares of the greatly maligned 1993 live-action "Super Mario Bros." movie to bed. The new CG-animated "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a global smash hit at the box office, bringing in a remarkable $375 million worldwide and approximately $204 million from domestic receipts, per Box Office Mojo.

This was the perfect storm for Nintendo and animation studio Illumination and distribution partner Universal Pictures. Since the first trailer was released, audiences have been overwhelmingly on board for the film. While the film was not well-liked by critics, scoring only 56% on Rotten Tomatoes, it drew an audience score of 96%. The film played well with children and families and brought in a crowd of longtime Nintendo fans, gamers, their kids, and family members.

"The Super Mario Bros." movie brought in an estimated $146.3 million for the three-day weekend. It ballooned to $204 million due to the extended holiday weekend and the movie's release date moving up in anticipation of the Easter holiday. The opening weekend gave animation studio Illumination its highest-grossing debut, beating the previous title holder, "Minions," which opened to $115.7 million for its three-day opener that year.

The film is also the highest opening weekend of 2023, surpassing Marvel's "Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania," which opened to $106.1 million. It's also the biggest five-day opening weekend for a Wednesday-to-Sunday opening frame, surpassing the 2009 sequel, "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen" at $200 million. It is also the highest opening weekend ever for a film based on a video game, surpassing the 2022 film, "Sonic the Hedgehog 2," which opened to $72.1 million. "Sonic the Hedgehog 2" finished with $190 million domestically and $405 million worldwide. "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has already surpassed the domestic take of "Sonic 2" and will crush its worldwide interpretation in a few days.

Considering the film has a reported budget of $100 million, it is likely already close to breaking even for the studio if it hasn't already. It will launch a franchise with sequels and potential spinoffs for Nintendo and Illumination that could continue to rake in cash for years if they play their cards right.

While the casting of Chris Pratt as Mario did draw some controversy, other vocal casting choices, such as Charlie Day as Luigi, and Jack Black as Bowser, paid off in dividends. Once you hear Pratt's performance as Mario, he didn't do too bad of a job compared to the early reactions to his voice-over work. Black even sings as Bowser in some of its hilarious, laugh-out-loud moments.

A music video of Black performing his song from the film, "Peaches," is now on Lyrical Lemonade. The video has already drawn over six million views in just a few days.

https://youtu.be/aW7bzd8uwyQ

So, now that "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is a huge success, it begs the question, what's next? Illumination, Nintendo, and Universal aren't saying anything yet, but they will probably announce plans sooner rather than later. The good news for all parties involved is that Nintendo is partnered with Universal for Super Nintendo World at the Universal Studios theme parks. They are embedded in business with one another for the long haul.

Not to mention, Nintendo has a vast library of IP at its fingertips. Beyond the world of "Super Mario Bros." there are countless properties and characters to adapt from Nintendo's library for future films if they can find the right teams to go together. Many would probably work better as animated features over live-action if the studios feel that format makes more sense. But more than anything, Nintendo now has a hit movie based on one of their most beloved properties, finally putting all the bad memories of the 1993 film to bed.

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is in theaters now. It stars the voices of Pratt, Black, Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen, and Keegan-Michael Key.