How was "Super Mario" able to gross a billion dollars and exceed all expectations?
Even though 2023 is still in its first half, "The Super Mario Bros" is arguably the undeniable phenomenon of the year, surpassing even the most optimistic predictions and setting records.
This week, Super Mario broke the $1 billion barrier, transforming the project that originally started as Studio Universal's Adventure into the highest-grossing project of the year thus far.
Despite its commercial success, the work received a lukewarm response from critics, earning only a 59% score on Rotten Tomatoes.
A Record-Breaking Animated Film in the Post-Covid Era:
Just 26 days after its release in cinemas, Super Mario broke the $1 billion mark, becoming the first animated film to achieve this feat in the "post-Covid-19" era and the tenth billion-dollar animated film overall.
For Studio Universal, the film has surpassed the Minions series and become their highest-grossing animated film ever, as well as the third highest-grossing film overall after Jurassic World and E.T. The Extraterrestrial.
In Hollywood, "Super Mario" is the fourth highest-grossing film since 2019, before the pandemic caused a deep shock to the industry. It's also the highest-grossing film adaptation of an electronic game and the first in this category to earn a billion dollars.
Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Gelinek, and voiced by American movie stars like Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor Joy, Jack Black, and Seth Rogan, "Super Mario" is a computer-generated film based on the popular Nintendo game of the same name. This is the second attempt to bring this world to the big screen after a 1990s film of the same title was a commercial and critical failure. Talks between the game's creator, Universal Studio, and "Illumination" began in 2016, with actual production starting in 2020.
The Success of Super Mario: Nostalgia, Fast-paced Action, and Intergenerational Appeal.
Super Mario was an integral part of the childhood of millennials born between the mid-1980s and mid-1990s. Today, parents take their children to theaters to watch animated films featuring Super Mario, who has managed to attract several generations.
The movie depicts the story of Mario, a skilled plumber of Italian-American origin, who lives in New York with his family and tries to establish his own plumbing company to prove his worth to his skeptical family. Along with his brother Luigi, he sets out to solve a sewage problem in their Brooklyn neighborhood, hoping to gain fame and future customers. However, they unexpectedly end up in a different world through a magical drainage pipe - Mario in the "Mushroom Kingdom" and Luigi in the "dark lands" ruled by the villain and colonizer Bozar.
Mario embarks on a journey to save his brother with the help of Princess Beach, whose kingdom is threatened by Bozar. They face various obstacles, leading to a confrontation between the forces of good and evil.
Although Super Mario received lukewarm reviews from critics and a poor rating due to its below-average technical and artistic aspects compared to even the most traditional Disney films such as "Coco" or "Moana," it was able to evoke childhood memories on the big screen by accurately recreating the original game's world. The film uses details such as the movement of the hero and obstacles he must overcome, the princess's castle and her appearance, and the incorporation of elements from the famous soundtrack.
The film's success can be attributed to its short duration of approximately 1.5 hours and fast-paced events that cater to the attention span of younger generations, influenced by the spread of short-form videos across various applications such as TikTok and YouTube.
Despite not being expected to be a massive success, Super Mario broke records and topped the list of highest-grossing films for various reasons. It is a work that has enhanced communication between parents and children, and its experience plays on nostalgia, which older generations can enjoy with younger ones.
