Released in theaters last week, Super Mario Bros. The Movie (the trailer) broke all box office records in the category of films based on video games, and is the highest grossing film so far in 2023, collecting $377 million worldwide.
With the 146 million dollars raised in the USA alone, it surpassed even Sonic The Hedgehog 2 (2022), another film inspired by a video game that held the record with 141 million dollars collected precisely in the first week of release. And it was also a success in Italywhere in just five days it raised almost 7 million euros (6,972,434 €).
Rogue nostalgia
The story is that of Mario (voiced by Claudio Santamaria, who has already voiced the various Batmans played by Christian Bale) e Louis (with the voice of Emiliano Coltorti), two failed plumbers from Brooklyn who find themselves facing the villain of villains, Bowser (dubbed in the original language by the famous Jack Black, while in Italy Fabrizio Vidale lends his voice, who has dubbed Jack Black in more than 20 films), in the Mushroom Kingdom.
Then there is the princess Peach (with Valentina Favazza, voice of Jennifer Lawrence in X-Men, among others), to complete the set of the main characters of this story with a nostalgic plot. It is the first film adaptation of the video game since the live-action days of 1993in which Super Mario was played by the extraordinary Bob Hoskins.
This new film is available in 3D, IMAX and other premium formats, which according to the data collected so far represent 38% of revenue. According to Rich Gelfond, CEO of IMAX, already now Super Mario Bros. is the company’s highest-grossing animated film, with $21.6 million raised worldwide.
A future full of opportunities
With these numbers we can legitimately expect a sequel to the film for Super Mario (perhaps we could explore Boo’s castle) and, why not, even some other film adaptations for successful video games that immerses us in the jungle of Donkey Kong.
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