Even before The Super Mario Bros. Movie had released, everyone was fully expecting the star-studded animation to become the highest-grossing video game adaptation that’s ever been made, and with good reason.
No offense to the previous title holder, but Duncan Jones’ Warcraft had been wearing the crown since the summer of 2016 after bringing in $439 million at the box office, even though it didn’t turn a single penny of profit in theaters. It was inevitable the blockbuster feature starring the Nintendo icon was going to be massive, but nobody could have predicted just how big.
After another mind-blowing weekend at the multiplex, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has smashed past a billion dollars to continue its unstoppable march towards insane profitability. It’s already the biggest hit of 2023 by far, as well as one of the top-grossing animated titles of all-time, with the only real question being how high it could fly.
Statistically, by this time tomorrow it will have earned 250% more from theaters than any other console-to-screen film there’s ever been, which is quite frankly nuts when you think about it. People can’t seem to get enough, though, and with little in the way of direct competition in the coming weeks outside of the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, $1.5 billion at the very least definitely isn’t out of the question.
If anything has a shot at dislodging The Super Mario Bros. Movie, then, you’d imagine the only real contender would be its own sequel, which is surely only a matter of days away from being announced.