Super Mario Bros. has become a movie. Movie Biggest Video Game Adaptation Ever – Variety

© Universal / Courtesy Everett Collection

The Super Mario Bros. movie continues. Movie achieved the highest score at the box office.

The video game adaptation has crossed the $500 million mark at the global box office, breaking records with the gusto that its main character usually collects power-ups. So far, the animated adventure has $260.3 million domestically and $248.4 million internationally. This brings its worldwide revenue to $508.7 million. It’s now the biggest movie of 2023 at both the global and domestic box office, surpassing “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” (unlike this movie, people seem to have enjoyed this movie). More importantly, it makes “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” the biggest video game adaptation to gross over “Warcraft” and “Detective Pikachu.”

“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” was produced by Universal, Illumination, and Nintendo and has been in the works for decades. Part of the delay was due to Nintendo’s reluctance to return to the Mushroom Kingdom on screen after the 1993 live-action adaptation failed in spectacular fashion, and was derided as one of the worst films ever made. But Illumination, which produced the “Despicable Me” and “Sing” franchises, has worked alongside Nintendo to do justice to the mustachioed plumber and his brother Luigi. That means Illumination founder Chris Meledandri co-produced the movie with Shigeru Miyamoto, the legendary Nintendo designer who created Mario, along with Zelda and Donkey Kong.

Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelinek directed “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which features voice actors of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Jack Black. It has a production budget of $100 million, which is economical for an animated film. For example, Pixar and Disney films often cost twice as much.

Among other notable achievements, the film is now the second-biggest animated film since 2019 in terms of worldwide box office, coming in ahead of “Demon Slayer: Mugen Train” ($494 million) and behind “Minions: The Rise of Gru” ($ 942.5 million). Stay tuned for the inevitable announcement of a “Super Mario Bros. Movie” sequel or spin-off.