It may have taken its time, but Super Mario Galaxy, the Movie has finally crossed a major symbolic box-office milestone. It’s the first of the year.
Nintendo’s reconciliation with Hollywood cinema is now beyond doubt. In 1993, the company pulled away after the misadventure Super Mario Bros., which not only adapted the iconic video game very poorly, but also crashed at the domestic box office, pulling in about $20 million on a budget estimated at $42 million.
But in 2023, Illumination and its take on Super Mario Bros managed to win industry forgiveness: with a budget of $100 million, the film grossed $1.36 billion worldwide, making it the year’s second-biggest hit behind Barbie. That achievement gave the legendary game creator reason to reinvest in the big screen, notably with a live-action The Legend of Zelda movie headed by Wes Ball. And it’s not the performance of Super Mario Galaxy, the Movie that will deter them from riding this momentum.
Mario Counts the Coins
The little mustached guy needs 100 coins to earn an extra life. He’s probably become immortal thanks to the movie Super Mario Galaxy, which has just surpassed the $1 billion mark in worldwide grosses. It nonetheless took him roughly ten weeks to reach that symbolic milestone, whereas its predecessor did so much more quickly. That’s likely to be the last milestone of his film career, since it’s now playing in just 642 theaters across the United States.
Sure, it no longer has any chance of catching up to the first installment and its sky-high tally, which had placed it at the 20th spot on the all-time global box-office list. But Nintendo and Illumination’s executives are far too busy counting their money to worry: Super Mario Galaxy, the Movie cost only $110 million. Even with a marketing budget, probably enormous, at the top, it’s a true cash machine.
D’autant qu’une telle production n’a pas que le box-office dans sa ligne de mire. Nintendo a eu l’idée ingénieuse de publier un remake des deux premiers jeux juste avant la sortie du long-métrage. Sachant que le premier avait déjà été vendu à 12,7 millions d’exemplaires en 2016, on vous laisse imaginer la somme des recettes complémentaires.
This is the first film to cross that threshold in 2026, Michael étant en train de sérieusement ralentir avec 888 millions de dollars en poche. Le podium est complété par Last Chance Project et ses 679,7 millions. Il a des chances d’être détrôné par les mastodontes que sont Moana (sortie le 8 juillet), Odyssey (sortie le 15 juillet), Spider-Man: Brand New Day (sortie le 29 juillet) ou bien sûr Avengers: Doomsday (le 16 décembre). Autre concurrent de poids sur le même créneau : Minions and the Monsters (sortie le 24 juin !), produit par… Illumination, dont les dirigeants devraient donc passer une belle année. Espérons que cela profite aussi aux artistes.
