“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has officially become the top performing movie release of 2023 so far, raking in $500 million in revenue.
The animated film, which is based on the classic Nintendo video game, was released just ahead of Easter weekend and quickly brought in $377 million in global box office sales and $204.6 million in domestic sales in the first few days. Now, just nine days after the premiere, the family-friendly film surpassed the $500 million mark, making it the number-one film of the year so far.
“Super Mario Bros” is also the highest-grossing video game adaptation ever made, a record which was previously held by “Warcraft” and “Detective Pikachu,” per a Deadline report. It’s the number 12 highest-grossing studio release since 2019 worldwide and is one of only 13 studio films to earn more than $500 million since 2019.
Critic reviews were mixed but user reviews are strong on Rotten Tomatoes, where the animated film starring Chris Pratt has a 58% critic rating but a 96% audience score.
“Super Mario Bros. has been one of the most popular video games for nearly 40 years, and watching this joyous, colorful concoction it’s easy to see why,” L.A. Weekly critic Asher Luberto wrote of the film.
The U.K. Times said it was “emotionally bland” but “garish enough to psychologically sedate the pre-teen Easter audience.”
“It is the laziest possible version of a Mario movie, and for most viewers, young and old, that’ll be totally acceptable,” the Observer reviewer wrote.
Meanwhile, audiences said it was perfect family-friendly entertainment that was blissfully free from adult themes.
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“I took my four year old son to watch this movie as he’s super into Mario and he LOVED it. I loved the humor in the movie, the colors and animation. It is a good story line and just a great family friendly movie. I have no complaints,” one fan wrote.
“We loved the movie,” another fan wrote. “As an adult who played the game as a kid, is was the perfect mix of old school and new. The graphics were excellent. And I was really invested in the characters.”
“Fans of video games and especially the Super Mario series will love. A simple and sweet movie for the family filled with lots of care and love for the game series. Was smiling from ear-to-ear all the way through the movie,” another person wrote.