“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” continues to be a box office high-scorer.
The video game adaptation has crossed the $500 million mark at the global box office, shattering records with the gusto that its title character usually amasses via power-ups. To date, the animated adventure has earned $260.3 million domestically and $248.4 million internationally. That lifts its worldwide haul to $508.7 million. It is now the highest-grossing film of 2023 at both the global and domestic box office, surpassing “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (unlike that movie, people seem to have enjoyed this one). More important, it also makes “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” the biggest video game adaptation in history, topping the grosses of “Warcraft” and “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu.”
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was produced by Universal, Illumination and Nintendo and had been in the works for decades. Part of the delay was due to Nintendo’s hesitancy to return to the Mushroom Kingdom on screen after a 1993 live-action adaptation flopped in spectacular fashion and was derided as one of the worst movies ever made. But Illumination, which has produced the “Despicable Me” and “Sing” franchises, worked hand-in-hand with Nintendo to do justice to the mustachioed plumber and his brother Luigi. That meant that Illumination’s founder Chris Meledandri co-produced the film with Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Nintendo designer who created Mario along with gaming classics like Zelda and Donkey Kong.
Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic directed “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which features a voice cast of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy and Jack Black. It carries a production budget of $100 million, which is economical for an animated film. Pixar and Disney animated movies, for instance, often cost twice that figure.
Among other notable milestones, the film is now the second biggest animated film since 2019 in worldwide box office terms, coming in ahead of “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” ($494 million) and behind “Minions: The Rise of Gru” ($942.5 million). Stay tuned for the inevitable announcement of a “Super Mario Bros. Movie” sequel or spinoff.