Nintendo is planning on continuing its video game adaptation films with more consistency following the planned release of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie and The Legend of Zelda.
In a presentation outlining second-quarter financial results, Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa said the company is “building a framework for a consistent release cadence” of movies. This new direction is built on the staggering success of the 2023 hit, The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Their focus, “to create smiles through entertainment,” continues to be their number one priority, so the financial statement reveals the company cares more about contributing to the growth of in-house IPs and bringing families together than “the measurable results” recorded by theatre box office numbers. The next scheduled launch, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie‘s first teaser, can be seen below.
Furukawa also noted that the animation production company Nintendo Pictures (responsible for the recent Pikmin animated short, Close to You) was created in 2022, and this year the company launched Nintendo Stars, a subsidiary focused on promoting “new ways to enjoy our characters through various licensing and secondary use initiatives”. The company remains deeply involved in the production process, and Furukawa says, “For The Super Mario Bros Movie and the upcoming The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, our own Shigeru Miyamoto has served as a co-producer alongside Mr. Chris Meledandri of Illumination,” keeping the film production closer to home than when The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! launched in 1989.
Following the planned 2027 release of The Legend of Zelda‘s movie adaptation, Nintendo has provided two question marks without dates to denote that there are already two other film projects in the works. The ellipsis also forecasts that there will be more to come following the unannounced releases, so Nintendo is in the film business for the long haul.
