The Super Mario Bros. Movie Hits $500 Million In A Week, Now The Top Video Game Movie Of All Time
Well, that certainly didn't take long. After just a week in theaters, "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" has officially become the highest-grossing movie of 2023 thus far, eclipsing the $500 million mark and surpassing the gross of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" ($474.4 million). According to The Hollywood Reporter, the animated film has amassed a grand total of $508.7 million in ticket sales as of Thursday, April 13. With that, the film is not only the king of the year (for now), it's also officially the biggest video game movie in history.
Frankly, it's not even all that close. Currently ranking second on the all-time charts is 2016's "Warcraft," which earned $438.8 million during its run. Although it notoriously bombed domestically, taking in just $47.3 million in North America, "Warcraft" was basically bailed out by a massive turnout in China. In any event, that adaptation is now in Mario's review mirror, as Nintendo's partnership with animation studio Illumination and Universal Pictures has proved to be incredibly fruitful. The question now becomes; just how high can "Mario" fly?
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" looks to win its second weekend at the box office as well, easily fending off "Renfield" and "The Pope's Exorcist." It should be over the $600 million mark come Monday and, realistically, only a couple of movies stand between it and finishing 2023 as the biggest movie of the year. If "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3" and "Fast X" can't deliver gigantic pre-pandemic sized hits, then we're likely looking at this year's box office champion and, in all likelihood, the next movie to cross the coveted $1 billion threshold.
A new era for video game movies
Nintendo was (in)famously the first through the wall in the early '90s when studios began looking at video games as possible fodder for blockbuster films. 1993's "Super Mario Bros." was an utter disaster and kind of set the tone for these adaptations for decades to come. It's only in recent years, with movies like "Sonic the Hedgehog" and "Detective Pikachu" (as well as the lesser-discussed "Rampage"), that the tide truly started to turn. But with this animated take on Nintendo's heroic plumber becoming an unqualified, runaway success, we've clearly turned a corner.
Superhero movies have been the biggest thing for 20 years now, but there are signs that bubble may be getting ready to pop, with both "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania" and "Shazam! Fury of the Gods" disappointing at the box office this year. "Fury of the Gods," in particular, was a pretty huge bomb for Warner Bros. and left that franchise dead in the water. That being the case, video games seem like a good place for studios to turn, as there are many, many popular titles out there that can, in the right hands, with the right execution, potentially become huge hits on the big screen as well. For now, Universal and Illumination get to pop champagne and put this feather in their cap.
"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" is currently playing in theaters.