Despite some mean critic reviews, The Super Mario Bros. Movie earned more than a billion at the box office and is set to be one of the highest-earning animated films ever.
Allow me to digress momentarily to congratulate Universal for the tremendous success of Super Mario Bros. Though the film marks a huge success for Illumination, Disney CEO Bob Iger says the film’s achievements are good for the movie industry overall. During an earnings call (via Video Games Chronicle), Iger said, “Good afternoon, everyone… It proves people love to be entertained in theaters worldwide and gives us reason to be optimistic about the movie business.”
Admittedly, there has been a huge debate on whether movies will still be viable in theaters. However, the numbers for Super Mario reveal that audiences are still very willing to come to cinemas post-pandemic.
Super Mario’s success is also particularly huge for animated films in general. With Disney delegating Pixar movies like Luca and Turning Red to straight-to-streaming releases, many audiences thought the studio had lost its fate in animation. However, Super Mario proves that animated films can still make bank at the box office.
Here’s the movie synopsis:
A Brooklyn plumber named Mario travels through the Mushroom Kingdom with a princess named Peach and an anthropomorphic mushroom named Toad to find Mario’s brother, Luigi, and to save the world from a ruthless fire-breathing Koopa named Bowser.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is set to release on digital in five days.
