It’s official: at nearly $678 million in takings so far, The Super Mario Bros Movie is the biggest grossing videogame movie adaptation of all time (as well as the biggest grossing movie of 2023)—as reported by The Numbers. And given that it’s only been out a couple of weeks so far, you can expect that number to climb to even more unassailable heights before its run is over.
That’s a very healthy lead over its closest competitors, including former number one Warcraft at $439 million (despite a very lukewarm reception in the US, that one was a huge success overseas) and Detective Pikachu at $433 million. You’d think the number four spot would be one of the Sonic movies, but no—it’s Rampage at $428 million, a movie I’m convinced no one on earth could recall the plot of in 2023, but another that was a big winner overseas.
The Super Mario Bros Movie hasn’t been especially well received critically, with only a 58% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes, but movie-goers both domestic and international have turned out in their droves to see it. A very aggressive marketing campaign, bolstered by the viral appeal of Jack Black and his wonderful new earworm from the film, has probably helped. The stink of the live action 1993 movie has certainly been wiped away at this point—it’s earned about 17 times as much as that one (not accounting for inflation) despite having 100% less Bob Hoskins.
Of course, a Nintendo movie kicking a PC game movie off its throne must be taken as a declaration of war. We’ll need to rally our best screenwriters and directors for a counter-attack. What’s our next most bankable property? Do you think anyone would pay to see a Half-Life movie? Failing that we’ll just have to see if we can get those guys who did Arcane to make a League of Legends film.