'The Super Mario Bros. Movie' is the second-highest grossing film of 2023 behind 'Barbie'. Photo: Handout
Nintendo and American animation studio Illumination are developing a second film based on the Super Mario Bros video game characters, seeking to recreate the first movie’s surprise commercial success.
The new film will be produced by Illumination founder and chief executive Chris Meledandri and Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto, the game’s original creator, the companies said in a press statement dated March 10.
The movie will be released on April 3, 2026, they said.
Nintendo has been trying to bring its popular characters to the big screen, with Miyamoto recently saying the company wants to some day create one movie every year.
Like The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023), which generated almost US$1.4bil in global ticket sales and was the second-highest grossing film of 2023 behind Barbie, the film will be distributed by Universal Pictures.
It will also be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, with Matthew Fogel returning to write the script.
Nintendo has been exploring ways to expand its revenue beyond video games and cyclical game console sales. Sales of its Switch console remain solid, but investors fear it will be hard to maintain momentum against fierce competition.
The Kyoto-based company recently told game developers that it was pushing back the launch of its Switch successor to the beginning of 2025.
That means the seven-year-old Switch console will be battling new and more powerful consoles from Sony and Microsoft during the year-end holiday season.
The first Super Mario movie followed a decade of internal discussions, and served to test the strength of Nintendo’s intellectual property (IP). In the nine months to December, movies helped nearly double Nintendo’s mobile and IP-related business revenue to 75.2bil yen.
The company is developing a live-action film based on The Legend Of Zelda game franchise, with Nintendo financing more than 50% of the movie production. Sony Pictures Entertainment will provide funding and handle global distribution. – Bloomberg
