A movie based on one of the bestselling video game franchises of all time has turned in record-breaking results at the box office and may act as a current and future catalyst for its parent company. Here’s the latest.
What Happened: The recently released “Super Mario Bros. Movie” has broken box office records for video games and animated movies, following up on the success of the video game adaptation “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” from 2022.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” grossed $146.4 million domestically in its opening weekend and grossed $204.6 million in its first five days, according to Variety.
The movie from Nintendo Co NTDOY and Illumination, owned by Comcast Corporation CMCSA, set several records and is now the biggest opening movie of 2023.
In international theaters, the movie grossed an additional $173 million, bringing the global total to $377 million.
The Mario animated movie now ranks as the top opening animated film globally of all-time, beating the previous record holder, “Frozen 2.” The movie has the second-highest domestic opening for an animated movie, trailing “Frozen 2” and beating out “Finding Dory.”
The record-breaking international result came with the movie seeing mediocre results in China, where the movie was the fourth highest-grossing movie with $6.8 million in its opening weekend.
The movie surpassed estimates from most experts, who expected $86 million in the opening weekend and $125 million in the first five days of release. Estimates were revised several times throughout the first five days in theaters.
Imax Corporation IMAX said “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” grossed $16.6 million domestically and $21.6 million globally in its opening weekend, setting several records for an animated movie domestically, globally, and in over 20 individual countries. The movie will continue to play in IMAX theaters next week.
Movie theater company Cinemark Holdings CNK said the movie led to its highest single-day attendance since Christmas Day of 2019. On Saturday, April 8, Cinemark sold over 1 million tickets, led by “The Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
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What’s Next: Illumination has seen a string of hits with the "Despicable Me" franchise and two "The Secret Life of Pets" movies.
“The Super Mario Bros” ranks as the biggest opening for the movie studio, which could spark interest in creating additional Mario animated movies.
“This result speaks to the extraordinary love for these Nintendo characters and the storytelling from Illumination,” Universal’s president of domestic distribution Jim Orr said.
The cast of “The Super Mario Bros” has ideas for what a sequel or Mario movie universe could look like.
Chris Pratt and Charlie Day, who voiced Mario and Luigi respectively, said in an interview before the movie opened that sequel ideas could include adaptations of “Mario Golf” or “Luigi’s Mansion.” The duo also hinted that a post-credits scene could set up where a potential sequel is going.
“Listen, there’s like, at the end of the film, there’s a post-credit sequence that gives you a taste of what the sequel could be about. And that gets me very, very excited. But there’s been talk of Luigi’s Mansion,” Pratt said.
Jack Black, who voiced the villain Bowser in the movie, would love to see Pedro Pascal as Wario in a sequel.
While it’s unknown if Bowser would be back in the sequel, Black told GameSpot that Wario would be perfect in a new movie.
“Wario. Pedro Pascal is Wario,” Black said.
The actor also said that he would welcome the idea of Bowser teaming up with Mario to defeat a more evil villain.
“It’s not a given that Bowser will return. You know, I did a few Kung Fu Panda movies, and it was a different villain every movie. They may do the same thing.”
Black also said he was open to a Bowser spinoff movie.
A sequel has not been officially announced by Nintendo or Comcast, but given the success of the film and the post-credits scene, it seems highly likely that it's a matter of when and not if.
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” could continue to set records in theaters throughout its release and will be highly anticipated to get a release on streaming platforms. Universal has a deal to share movies on Netflix Inc NFLX, Amazon Prime Video AMZN and Peacock. Comcast owned Peacock is expected to get the movie first with an expected release date around June 23, 2023, before it would hit Netflix and Amazon Prime Video four months later. The movie’s release on Peacock could lead to a short term gain of subscribers for the streaming platform.
Nintendo is the owner of the Mario franchise and also has other well-known video game brands like The Legend of Zelda that have been rumored to get movies or series adaptations. The success of the latest Mario movie could see Nintendo push deeper into monetizing its intellectual property through shows and movies, which could act as a future catalyst for the stock.
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