The Super Mario Bros. Movie is officially the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time, according to Variety. As of this writing, the movie has raked in well over $600 million worldwide, with the take split fairly evenly between the U.S. and international box offices. And that number continues to grow with each passing day. Yahoo!
Before Super Mario Bros., the record was held by 2016’s Warcraft, which made around $438 million worldwide. But Mario has crushed that record like a turtle who wanders back and forth on the same plane forever until their head is stomped in by a plumber on a mission to save the world.
This is the first time in 30 years that the world of Super Mario has been brought to life on the big screen. For those who don’t remember, there was another Mario movie in 1993, an abysmal live-action adaptation we’d rather pretend never existed.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie continues to soar at the box office
Luckily for us, the new animated version is doing much better. Comscore senior media analyst Paul Degarabedian spoke to SYFY Wire about the movie’s success. “The video game genre now gets a level up by virtue of Mario’s unprecedented performance in theaters and opens the door for more films from this genre, particularly animated PG-rated films, to get the green-light,” he said. “However, his type of success was years in the making and required a perfectly-executed marketing, distribution, and release strategy. And though the path to more video game adaptations may have been cleared of some financial hurdles and creative obstacles, building another perfect beast like this Mario will not be an easy ‘power-up’ for any studio looking to get into the game.”
Will there be another video game movie adaptation that does as well as this one? Or is this success a unique occurrence? We note that the movie’s success coincides with the opening of Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood. A lot of things lined up here.
The movie stars Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the voices of Mario and Luigi and Jack Black as the villainous Bowser. Other cast members include Anya Taylor-Joy (Princess Peach), Keegan-Michael Key (Toad), Seth Rogen (Donkey Kong), Fred Armisen (Cranky Kong), Kevin Michael Richardson (Kamek), Sebastian Maniscalco (Spike), and Charlies Martinet (he did the voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, and Waluigi in the games and has a cameo at the beginning of the film).
If you haven’t already, head to the movie theater to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie!
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