Its rare that films and shows based on video games actually manage to match expectations, but 2023 was, seemingly, the year of the video game adaptation.
It was the year that saw both The Super Mario Bros Movie and The Last of Us arrive on screens, two of gaming’s most successful adaptations. They top a painfully lengthy list of previous failures, many of which — even the good ones — failed to capture the soul of the story they were adapting. That wasn’t the case with Universal Pictures’ attempt at the ever-popular Mario, nor was it the case with HBO’s take on Naughty Dog’s incredible apocalyptic tale. Could we be at the precipice of a new era of moviemaking?
We can certainly hope that upcoming attempts to bring our gaming favorites to the big and small screen will follow in the footsteps of these success stories, of course, but we’re too smart to hang our hopes on the heartless overlords that make content these days. Sure, the occasional project will be treated with a loving hand, but the inevitable draw of capitalism will ruin plenty of our favorites. That’s all but guaranteed.
Even as the big wigs spurn the original story for their own hair-brained ideas, however, we’ll have those rare successes to lean on. We can rewatch The Super Mario Bros Movie over on Peacock, NBCUniversal’s streaming service, whenever we want — but there’s a catch. A deal with Netflix dictates that the flick will depart Peacock for the alternate streamer after a certain amount of time has passed, leaving Peacock subscribers with a window of lost access. It will come back to NBC’s streamer eventually, of course, but not until Netflix subscribers have had their fill.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie release on Netflix, explained
Thanks to a deal struck between NBCUniversal and Netflix, The Super Mario Bros. Movie will grace both Peacock and Netflix during its first 18 months of streaming. The flick has spent the last several months happily situated on Peacock, but it will depart the service and shift over to Netflix on Dec. 3. The film will then be accessible to anyone with a Netflix subscription for the following 10 months, meaning it should be streamable on Netflix from Dec. 3, 2023 to Oct. 3, 2024. From there, it will jump back over to Peacock for its remaining four months.
Anyone hoping to catch a viewing of The Super Mario Bros. Movie over on Netflix will have a good chunk of time to do so, but don’t sleep on the delightful animated flick. It will depart Netflix eventually, and if you miss its window on the streamer you may not get another chance to catch the flick for free.
