The Super Mario Bros. Movie has only been in theaters for a week and a half, but it's been pulverizing box office records faster than Nintendo's mascot can run from left to right. It already had the highest-grossing opening weekend for any video game-based movie in the US and Canada, but the film has proven to be a hit around the globe.
According to Variety, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has raked in north of $508.7 million worldwide. That makes it both the biggest film of 2023 so far as well as the highest-earning video game movie of all time in theaters. The previous record holder was Warcraft, which had a global haul of $439 million.
After the bizarre mess of the 1993 live-action Super Mario. Bros film, Nintendo swore off movie adaptations of its properties for decades. But with the help of Despicable Me studio Illumination and a focus on replicating the widely recognized art style of Mario games in animation, Nintendo has struck gold with the latest film (even if the plot doesn't amount to much).
There's a long way to go before Nintendo, Illumination and Universal, which co-financed and distributed the flick, can truly dream of The Super Mario Bros. Movie becoming one of the biggest animated films of all time. It hasn't broken into the top 50 yet, while the 2019 remake of The Lion King has the top spot with $1.66 billion.
Still, movies and other non-gaming experiences like theme parks will likely form a major part of Nintendo's business going forward. A Mario sequel and films based on other Nintendo properties (a Breath of the Wild adaptation, anyone?) now seem inevitable, as if Illumination founder Chris Meledandri having a seat on the board wasn't clear enough of an indication.