UPDATE: The Super Mario Bros Movie easily passed the record of being the highest grossing video game movie in its second weekend. It is now expected to be the first film of 2023 to make $ 1 billion at the box office.
The original story follows below.
The victory lap for Super Mario Movie continues, as it is set to become the highest grossing video game movie.
As reported by Video Games Chronicle, the movie has already grossed $437,946,600 worldwide. The movie only released last April 5, 2023, so that’s in a span of one week and two days.
That has put it incredibly close to the total worldwide of Pokemon: Detective Pikachu, licensed to Warner Bros and released in 2019. That movie’s total comes to $449,762,638, and that amounts to how much it made in theaters for its entire run.
Pokemon: Detective Pikachu’s initial total from the period of May 3 to June 13, 2023, was $433,005,346. An impressive number, and one that Super Mario Movie has already passed, in considerably less time.
Super Mario Movie happens to be riding an interesting time for the film theater business. Following the extended global lockdown that led to many theaters closing, the industry is once again booming.
As reported by Variety, film companies are finding the gains of bringing their movies to streaming services shrinking more and more. The splintering of streaming services has somewhat backfired on the content companies, as few entrants in the business are seeing enduring returns.
There also seems to be a general consumer discontent with staying at home. While the pandemic is not quite over yet, many consumers feel, after vaccinations and safety precautions, that they can do outdoor activities again. That includes parents and families, and this pattern has clearly influenced market behavior.
Smaller successes are helping the film theater market as well. But, the monumental success the Super Mario Movie is bringing in in particular, seems to be a signal that big blockbuster movies, and family movies, are set to become big business in theaters once again.
It’s somewhat inspiring to learn that this is the culmination of plans put into place by the late Nintendo CEO and President Satoru Iwata. As revealed by Kit Ellis and Krysta Yang in the Kit and Krysta podcast, Iwata had been talking about plans to expand Nintendo’s IP to shows and movies as far back as 2015.
Shigeru Miyamoto eventually decided to work with Illumination after meeting their president Chris Meledandri. However, these wheels set in motion a while after Satoru Iwata had passed away.
Miyamoto expressed a desire to make a Mario movie for years, but in pursuing this, he also worked to make his former colleague’s dreams come true. If Iwata was still with us, he would be elated to have seen his dreams’ success. Now, Nintendo’s potential in the movie business is realized, and they could take any direction from here.
