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Tag: Super Mario

  • Charles Martinet No Longer Voicing Mario and Friends

    Charles Martinet No Longer Voicing Mario and Friends

    In a way, we all knew this day would come eventually. Charles Martinet has been voicing most of the cast of the Super Mario Bros. franchise for over 30 years. Yet, it’s still something none of us really wanted to say is definite. We already had to adjust to the fact that Chris Pratt took over as the character in the major motion picture release earlier this year and now the official statement has been made by Nintendo that Martinet will no longer voice the character moving forward.

    It’s a shame that the announcement arrives in a simple red-tinted image rather than through a Nintendo Direct that highlights his career. Perhaps one is on the horizon that’ll unveil the new voice of Mario, Luigi, Wario, Waluigi, and many more moving forward. It does seem unlikely that Pratt is going to continue in this story. Most did notice that perhaps the voice teased in Super Mario Bros. Wonder wasn’t the one we are most used to.

    Now, we can only count the days until Martinet passes the torch to the next generation of voice actors to take on these iconic characters. He also isn’t leaving the character behind, as he is set to remain a “Mario Ambassador” moving forward to ensure that whoever takes over is always well prepared. A video message has been teased for the future, so we’ll have to wait just a bit longer for the official statement.

    Source: Twitter

  • Mamma Mia! ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Passes a Billion at the Box Office

    Mamma Mia! ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Passes a Billion at the Box Office

    Nothing is stopping the Italian plumber from dominating the box office until Chris Pratt’s next film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, hits theaters next week. Still, it was ample time for the Super Mario Bros. Movie to pass the always coveted one billion milestones at the worldwide box office. It took the film 26 days in total to pass that mark and now stands at $490M in the US with an additional $532M internationally. That makes it the fifth film to accomplish this during the pandemic since Spider-Man: No Way Home gave theater owners hope for the future.

    The film opened to a powerful $204M across five days and marks the second-highest debut for an animated film and the biggest opening weekend of the year following Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania’s still impressive opening in February. For now, the Nintendo film is the biggest earner of the year with quite a bit of competition on the horizon ready to take its mantle. The film has the advantage of being one of the biggest brands in the world and has a heavy nostalgia element tied to the project, which helps boost the otherwise dead family market we saw earlier in the year.

    The question remains what this might mean for the future of video game adaptations? We’ll very likely see a boom as it is the next “superhero genre” trend in the market even as that genre of filmmaking still remains surprisingly strong even with a much softer development earlier this year. Ant-Man 3 opened strongly but fizzled out due to Disney’s streaming strategy in the past but it’s not a clear sign of a true “fatigue” as some have been maliciously waiting for.

    The biggest takeaway from those that hit a billion is the nostalgia of it all. No Way Home re-introduced the world to some major characters from their childhood with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield returning in their respective roles. Top Gun Maverick hit a chord with older audiences due to its callbacks to an old era of star-first productions, which oddly many want back even with its strong restrictions of actors in samey roles and the industry depending even more on individual stars rather than giving smaller ones a chance.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Holds On to the Top Spot as ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Surprises at the Box Office

    ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Holds On to the Top Spot as ‘Evil Dead Rise’ Surprises at the Box Office

    It looks like Nintendo has fully dominated the box office, as The Super Mario Bros. Movie faces another soft drop in its third weekend and has pulled in $58.2M domestically and another $70M internationally. As such, the film is now at a strong $434.33M stateside and $437.5M in international markets, which sums up to a powerful $871.8M. It’s interesting that the film has such a strong weekend hold but seems to fizzle out a bit during the week after a strong 81% drop on Monday. Still, it seems that the film just pulls in multiple generations to relieve their gaming childhood.

    That is not all, as Evil Dead Rise, the counter-programming for the weekend, has been released and finds its way into quite the strong start at $23.5M. That is quite the number considering it only cost around $15M and proves once again just how powerful horror is in the market. It’s also a sigh of relief for Warner Bros. who originally wanted to release this film as a direct-to-streaming offering on HBO Max before the new leadership changed gears.

    It received a B CinemaScore but that has become quite common for anything with horror elements or gore in it. So, it should be taken lightly and we’ll see how its legs develop. Evil Dead Rise has the task to beat 2013’s Evil Dead reboot which had a slightly higher opening but also a just as slightly higher budget. If it has strong legs it might even surpass the $97.5M budget but Super Mario Bros. Movie is taking up most of the market at the moment.

    Guy Ritchie’s latest film, The Covenant, sadly isn’t doing too hot as it opened to a soft $6M which won’t help much even with an A CinemaScore. Dramas aimed at adult audiences and regular family films without a bigger nostalgic draw have still been struggling a bit at the box office. Even after a good early push, Beau is Afraid has stumbled to $2.7M while expanding its theater count which isn’t a good sign for its $35M budget.

    Source: The Numbers, Variety, Variety

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ On its Path to a Billion at the Box Office

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ On its Path to a Billion at the Box Office

    Nothing is seemingly stopping the Super Mario Bros. Movie from dominating theaters, as it has soared even higher in its second weekend. While mostly expected it to wrap up around $87M on Sunday by its estimates, the film has actually grown since then to a whopping $92M. That not only marks the highest-grossing second weekend for an animated film but also has become the seventh-highest at the domestic box office.

    It seems after families didn’t quite show up for Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania or Shazam: Fury of the Gods, they are all in for the nostalgia of Mario. A 37% decline on a record-breaking opening is nothing to scoff at, especially after its Japanese debut hasn’t even kicked off yet in the character’s core market and China is still barely holding on as a viable market for Western releases. Normally movies always drop at least 50% but it seems the memories of playing Mario at home just are that powerful.

    As such, the film has already passed $700M after 13 days, which is only the twelfth film to do so since the pandemic ended. The question remains if it’ll dethrone last year’s Minions: The Rise of Gru which pulled in $942.5M at the box office. It’s very likely to do so and everyone is expecting the film to be the first to pass one billion this year. It might even surpass The Lion King which holds the record as the highest animated movie ever (and no it still doesn’t count as live-action). Though, the only question remains of how much is left for the others until the summer market kicks off in May.

    Source: Variety

  • ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Pulls a Record-Breaking $87M in 2nd Weekend

    ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Pulls a Record-Breaking $87M in 2nd Weekend

    It looks like nostalgia remains a powerful tool for box office results. The Super Mario Bros. Movie has denied any expectations of being frontloaded and has pulled in an $87M second weekend, which is a huge hold after a powerful Easter weekend. Once again, it dethrones Frozen 2’s position at the top spot for animated films and marks Illumination’s best ever. What stands out is that this marks a drop of only 45%, the lowest we’ve probably seen in a long time for any project.

    Evil Dead Rise is on the horizon with a potential $20M+ opening weekend after moving away from HBO Max, it doesn’t look like anyone will take the top spot from Mario until the main summer season kicks off in a few weeks. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 will likely push them off that top spot but the film has had no real direct family-oriented competition for some time, but it’ll be interesting to see if its main target audience is likely much older than one might expect.

    Sadly, there’s a drawback with such a dominant presence in theaters as other projects are seemingly suffering a bit and not quite pulling in the audiences they want. Normally, counterprogramming is quite effective in using an audience that isn’t drawn in by the latest blockbuster but perhaps this is a bigger showcase of what exactly the audience is behind a film based on a franchise that started in the 1980s.

    Renfield has seemingly bombed in its opening weekend at third place with a small $7.7M. 62% of the box office went to The Super Mario Bros. Movie so it and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist ($8.5M) had to duke it out for what is left. Though the mixed reception on both doesn’t help that isn’t uncommon with many horror films that actually play better than what the general audience reception might make you think.

    Source: Deadline

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Becomes 2023’s Highest-Grossing Film

    Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania has been dethroned as The Super Mario Bros. Movie has now become the biggest worldwide release. It’s also the first film to pass the $500M mark which is quite impressive considering it has a budget of $100M, which is quite a bit lower than Pixar or Disney’s overly ambitious $200M animated production costs. It’s currently on track to stick to the top spot in the second weekend with $58M after pulling in $9.4M on Thursday.

    Internationally, the film has pulled in around $248.4M globally and stands at a strong $260.3M domestically, which totals $508.7M. The film dropped around 63% on its second Thursday which is a strong hold and highlights the power of nostalgia and Nintendo. It seems more and more likely that this is the current winning formula as people relive their own memories and bring the family along for the ride, which is perfect for a kid’s film like The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

    Interestingly enough, the other two big releases are currently duking it out as Nicolas Cage’s Renfield and Russell Crowe’s The Pope’s Exorcist are the newest releases with very similar Thursday night releases at the domestic box office. Renfield is currently still leading the pack with $900K while Crowe’s film is behind only by $850M. The action-horror entry is currently set to overtake the other new release with a slightly better Rotten Tomatoes hinting at a better box office run.

    Source: Deadline, Deadline, The Numbers

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Warpinig Towards $195M+ 5-Day Opening Weekend

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Warpinig Towards $195M+ 5-Day Opening Weekend

    It looks like early estimates have been quite off for The Super Mario Bros. Movie, as the biggest Nintendo adaptation of one of their most popular characters is on its way to ending its five-day domestic run at $195M. There’s a chance it might even go beyond the $200M mark but either way, it is already far ahead of its initial expectations.

    As such, it’ll also beat up Finding Dory‘s $135.1M three-day opening as it’s set to land at around $137M and will be the second-biggest opening for an animated film just behind Incredibles 2. Its initial expectations had it at around $127.5M and it’s now only a question of time before they announce a sequel.

    While critics weren’t too kind to the film, families are loving it and it even managed to pull in an A CinemaScore. It also makes the biggest opening for Illumination and is likely to become the second-biggest 5-day release since the first Transformers film.

    That Easter release was a clever timing to get this film out as it’s mainly getting its boost from the generation that grew up with these games; giving git that boosts that family audience would lack on their own with past releases this year.

    Source: The Hollywood Reporter

  • ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Early Projections Eyeing $100M+ Easter Opening

    ‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Early Projections Eyeing $100M+ Easter Opening

    The long-awaited return o Super Mario to the silver screen is almost upon us. While they took a safer route and avoided a live-action take on the classic plumber and his brother Luigi, The Super Mario Bros. Movie offers a fantastical look at the iconic Mushroom Kingdom through the lens of Illumination’s animation style.

    It’s avoided the usual trappings of that production studio so far with some impressive trailers and very promising visuals highlighting just how involved Nintendo was in bringing their biggest mascot to life. Now, early projects are already seeing some positive development for the April release.

    As it stands, the film is likely to open somewhere between $71M to $105M. The project is hard to truly pin down on just how successful it’ll be but seems like a very possible front-loaded must-see for those growing up with the character. Chris Pratt‘s casting as the main character though has softened some expectations as the Social Media buzz is surprisingly lower than what was expected.

    Though game adaptations aren’t always box office hits, Illumination has quite a strong track record with how they push their projects. Just last year, Minions 2: The Rise of Gru made a huge splash in theaters and adds to the potential that this film’s release with an iconic mascot as Mario offers. For now, we can only see how media buzz increases as we get closer to the film’s release.

    Source: Box Office Pro

  • Nintendo Has Been Heavily Involved With ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie

    Nintendo Has Been Heavily Involved With ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie

    Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath took on the challenge of bringing one of gaming’s biggest mascots to the silver screen with The Super Mario Bros. Movie. While it’s not the first full-length cinematic take on the character and the Mushroom Kingdom, it definitely is the closest we’ve ever gotten to the original gaming franchise. According to the directing duo of Teen Titans Go! fame, Nintendo was involved in every step along the way.

    From story to visual development to the animation, Nintendo has been with us every step of the way.

    Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath

    It’s no surprise given just how protective Nintendo is about its intellectual property, especially the one that pretty much put them on the map. Though, it does seem they are also using this film as a chance to tell his “origin tale” with some inspirations from Mario’s many iterations throughout the years. We get the Boston background from the 1993 film, a teaser with the theme song from the original The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!

    It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario.

    Aaron Horvath

    Though, they also wanted to have elements from the players that brought the character to life live in the animated adaptation. As such, they took that inspirational approach of Mario representing the player experience in how he will always succeed as long as you don’t give up.

    When you play the game, if you don’t give up, Mario will succeed. So we transferred that player experience from the game to a characteristic that [movie] Mario would have.

    Aaron Horvath

    It’s definitely a great little way of including the player in one way or another in the film. While we won’t have a chance to control the iconic character ourselves, perhaps we’ll get some cool outfits inspired by the movie for the net game entry, as we haven’t had an announcement since Super Mario Odyssey in 2017

    Source: Total Film

  • Illumination’s President Praises Chris Pratt’s Performance as Mario

    Illumination’s President Praises Chris Pratt’s Performance as Mario

    When the news hit that Chris Pratt was going to voice Mario, many were a bit surprised by the choice. The cast generally led to quite a few reactions with a stacked cast including Jack Black as Bowser and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. It didn’t help matters that Pratt was cast for an upcoming animated Garfield film, which added to the jokes that any animated character could be voiced by the Guardians of the Galaxy actor.

    In an interview with Animation Magazine, Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri had a lot of praise for his performance, as he went on to highlight that many of the criticism will be mute once they get to see his performance in action.

    When people hear Chris Pratt’s performance, the criticism will evaporate, maybe not entirely — people love to voice opinions, as they should. I’m not sure this is the smartest defense, but as a person who has Italian-American heritage, I feel I can make that decision without worrying about offending Italians or Italian-Americans… I think we’re going to be just fine.

    Chris Pratt

    It definitely is still a curious casting, especially when the character of Mario has such an iconic voice. Charles Martinet voiced the character since 1992 and is confirmed to appear in the upcoming animated film. Yet, it simply seems odd not to use the man who defined the character all those years ago if they’re going for an animated project, to begin with. We’ll have to wait and see what the project has to offer once the first trailer arrives.

    Source: Animation Magazine