The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the first film this year to break the $1 billion box office milestone globally.
The Nintendo, Illumination, and Universal Studios project broke $1 billion after less than a month in theatres. In the time it’s been released, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has claimed other titles, like being the highest-grossing movie this year and becoming the highest-grossing film based on a video game.
Aaron Horvath, who previously directed Teen Titans GO! The Movie, and Michael Jelenic, who’s known for producing and writing on Teen Titans and Animated Batman projects, both made a giant leap onto The Super Mario Bros. Movie set. Their first box office film made $490 million domestically and $532 million internationally in a little under a month. It’s likely to make even more money given its recent release in South Korea and Japan.
This is the first Nintendo Mario movie since the 1993, Super Mario Bros. Movie of the same name. That one was a live-action fever dream of a film, starring John Leguizamo as Luigi and Bob Hoskins as Mario. The 1993 film only grossed half its cost, raking in $20.9 million. Making this year’s release a comeback for the Mario film franchise.
Many fans even speculate that this is the start of Nintendo’s cinematic universe. A fan on Reddit posted a photoshopped Marvel-style Phase 1 timeline.
With video game adaptations like The Last of Us, The Witcher, and Sonic being so successful over the last few years, it’d make sense for Nintendo to hop on the bandwagon. The Super Mario Bros. Movie earning so much might mean that we will be seeing sequels in the near future, but which of Nintendo’s franchises do you hope to see adapted next?
