Since its release on April 5th, 2023, the star-studded animated epic The Super Mario Bros. Movie from Illumination and Universal has broken box office records worldwide, earning a stunning $377 million.
It is now the most successful opening weekend for an animated film of all time (beating Frozen 2’s opening weekend in 2019), and it is showing no signs of slowing down any time soon. In addition to this, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is currently the most successful film to be released thus far in the year 2023.
The Super Mario Brothers Video Game Is an Unqualified Victory.
The movie that Nintendo is supporting has amassed some remarkable numbers in such a short amount of time. In just five short days, it has generated nearly $400 million in revenues across seventy countries.
It has already surpassed some of the most prominent releases of the year up to this point, such as Ant-Man and the Wasp and John Wick 4, and with an all-star cast driving the project forward, there are expectations that the movie’s performance will easily surpass the $500 million mark.
The President of Distribution at Universal Pictures, Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, issued a statement in which she praised the remarkable success that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has had up to this point and said the following:
It’s a phenomenal number in every way imaginable. The original intellectual property (IP) on which the movie is based is beloved by people of all ages, especially younger people. This is very encouraging information for the sector.
After several years of negative press and underwhelming performances, popular gaming franchises’ live-action adaptations have only recently begun to find their footing. The Last of Us made its debut when 2023 opened its doors, and since then, it has established itself as one of the most remarkable shows of its kind ever to make its debut. The show has been pulling in insane numbers within the last few months.
Later this year (and beyond), we’ll see many more live-action adaptations, such as the Fallout TV show, the movie adaptation of Dead Space, a film adaptation of Street Fighter, and a film adaptation of Death Stranding.
It is unlikely that any of these franchises will be able to unseat The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the most successful animated film ever.
