From the legendary video game to the movie of the year

The earnings of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” are 377.2 million dollars. Released on April 6, it managed to achieve a harvest in its first weekend in theaters, surpassing “Frozen II” (2019) and taking the record for the best theatrical opening of an animated film. Since then, it has been a leader on the billboard.

But this is not the only movie record that recounts the adventures of the world’s most famous Italian plumbers together with Princess Peach, Donkey Kong and Jade to save the Mushroom Kingdom from the clutches of the evil and obsessive Bowser.

Movie from mario bros It also managed to win Best Video Game Movie Premiere, surpassing “Warcraft” (2016) and the highest grosser of the year, above “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania”.

In addition, it is also the best premiere of the company illumination taking over the position from “Despicable Me 2” (2013), and exceeded the collection sagas known as “Jurassic World Dominion” or “Fast and Furious 9”.

“This is something that does not surprise us: classic games They are experiencing a revival and Mario did not limit himself to ‘retro games‘ but it is adapted to every generation”, they say from the specialized site “Tus Juegos Retro” (https://tusjuegosretro.com/mario-bros/). And they confirm that “they are almost certain that it will not be the last time that a film based on retro video games was so successful.”

As these lines are being written, the film based on the hero Nintendo It has already collected a whopping 850 million, and that in the absence of a premiere in Japan (where they will have another Nintendo scenario). It is expected to cross the $1000 million mark soon.

From arcade to celluloid

But the story of great Mario goes back many years. And that’s already that Nintendo has sold more than 825 million copies of video games starring an Italian plumber.’

Movie Mario Bros. it also managed to get the best opening for a video game movie, surpassing “Warcraft” (2016) and the best-grossing this year, above “Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania.”

It all started last century. Mario Bros was created by legendary Japanese video game designer, Shigeru Miyamoto. He was initially known as “Jumpman” and made his first appearance in the game Donkey Kong in 1981.

A few years later, he had his own game “Mario Bros”, which was first released in 1983 for the arcade, and a little later for the console. Nintendo entertainment system (NSZ), receiving a great reception.

But it wasn’t until the release of “Super Mario Bros” in 1985 that Mario became a real hit. freak. This title alone has already sold more than 40 million copies. It is not the most successful in the saga (it was “Mario Kart 8” with 60 million), but it is the one that catapulted the legend.

Since then he has acted in a large number of games in various consoles from Nintendo, such as “Super Mario World”, “Super Mario Land”“Super Mario World”, “Super Mario 64”, “Super Mario Sunshine”, “Super Mario Galaxy” and many others.

above expectations

But none of this controversies managed to spoil the success of the film, which is loved by both children and adults: “It had certain expectations that this movie did well, but I’m very surprised because it went beyond what I could have imagined when it was released,” Super Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto told the Japanese press.

Of course, Miyamoto also believes that “it takes a bit of luck to a movie achieve success of this caliber”. tomatoes with 55% and was on the brink of that with 47% on Metacritic.

“Although many foreign critics rated the film relatively low, I think that also contributed to the notoriety and buzz surrounding it,” Miyamoto said. Chris Prattthe actor who gives life to the protagonist and who would not mind playing him again, explained to Player that “Mario is part of all our childhoods”. That’s why he said: “If someone messed with Mario, I’d be very angry too.”

“I am grateful to be part of the team behind this project and pride to say we didn’t screw up,” he said.