The Super Mario Bros Movie made an impressive domestic debut on Wednesday night, smashing USD$31 million in a single day. The partnership between Nintendo and Illumination is a magical key to a bonus level filled with coins for both companies. The Super Mario Bros Movie is currently on track for a projected USD$141 million for its Easter weekend debut, stomping previous projections.
My wife and I saw the movie on opening night, and it’s an excellent film for any fan of the series. I didn’t stop smiling through the entire 93 minutes, and she didn’t either. One particular scene had us both laughing almost to the point of tears. For anecdotal reference, our showing was completely sold out, and I haven’t seen that since before the pandemic.
Despite the seemingly odd casting choices in The Super Mario Bros Movie, we both found the performances good; even Chris Pratt’s Mario wasn’t nearly as bad as initially expected. However, Jack Black as Bowser is the star here, and I hope there’s more coming.
The long curse of badly unfaithful adaptations of video games into films has finally ended with these developments. Both Sonic The Hedgehog films were great, and Detective Pikachu also made a big splash. Nintendo was very heavily involved with the project, and the attention to detail is unmatched because of it. Word of mouth will be strong here, which I believe will add more to the massive pile of coins The Super Mario Bros Movie has already amassed.
While the opening day sales are a bit behind the one-day earnings for Illumination’s own Despicable Me 2, the long holiday weekend in the United States with the typical weekend rush will no doubt boost ticket sales for The Super Mario Bros Movie far into the Warp Zone. I recommend checking out some of J-List’s products if you’re a big fan of Nintendo. My personal favorite is this figure of May from Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire.
