When we last reported on The Super Mario Bros Movie, it had made a big splash on opening day in the United States. The movie was already breaking some small records. But today, I want to report on a big one. This past weekend, the movie soared beyond $1 Billion, a projection, it seems, that even Nintendo wasn’t expecting. For context, this became the 10th animated film to hit such a massive number and the first movie of 2023 to do so.
The Super Mario Bros Movie also opened in Japan last weekend to thunderous applause and box office performance with a staggering $14.3M to score the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated studio movie in the country, as well as the biggest Saturday box office in Universal history – knocking the apex predator Jurassic World Dominion from its perch. After only two days, The Super Mario Bros Movie wore the crown of the fastest Universal film to reach ¥1B.
Shigeru Miyamoto believes that the film’s laughable reviews from “professional” film critics helped boost the movie this far. A pretty humble reaction, given how some of the criticism and internet discourse treated the film quite poorly due to its simplistic nature. As I say all the time, simple is not bad. Record of Lodoss War is a simple and generic fantasy tale. But the execution and humble story of its creation elevates it above the sum of its parts. The Super Mario Bros Movie’s dedication to being a fun, accurate, fanservice-filled film does the same.
Personally, I’ve now seen The Super Mario Bros Movie movie three times. And while it does have some problems in the use of licensed music and some dangling plot threads obviously reserved for a second movie, there’s still a lot to love for fans of Nintendo and Mario.
If that sounds like you, may I suggest looking at this Legend of Zelda Concert box set we have in stock? With Tears of the Kingdom launching soon, there’s no better time to relive such lovely music.
