The massive success of Universal’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie is undermining Disney’s reputation as the superior animation studio, which poses a major problem for the latter’s animation future. Disney has continually put out some of the most iconic, critically acclaimed, and commercially successful animated movies in history, with the studio’s domination over the film medium increasing upon its acquisition of Pixar. Given Disney’s more recent animated box office failures with the likes of 2022’s Lightyear and Strange World, the unprecedented success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie makes Universal and Illumination a far more fierce animation rival.
Despite mixed reviews, The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s box office performance set numerous records to become the biggest new movie of 2023. The CGI-animated film, adapted from Nintendo’s Super Mario games, earned $377 million globally over its five-day opening weekend, substantially surpassing initial projections. With no significant rivals until May 5’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, The Super Mario Bros. Movie will continue to dominate the box office and prove that Universal is Disney’s greatest commercial competitor. While Disney has two big animated movies releasing in theaters in 2023, The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s unprecedented box office victory suggests the studio won’t be able to catch up.
Super Mario Bros’ Box Office Records Are Crushing Disney Animated Movies
Not only is The Super Mario Bros. Movie the biggest post-pandemic animated opening, but it’s also now the biggest five-day (Wednesday through Sunday) opening of all time at the domestic box office. According to Variety, The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $337 million five-day global opening has now surpassed the box office debuts of Disney’s massive animated box office hits Frozen 2 ($358.5 million), 2019’s The Lion King ($245.9 million), Toy Story 4 ($244.5), and Incredibles 2 ($235.8 million). Disney owns four of the five biggest animated box office openings, though all four premiered before massive box office shifts incited by the pandemic in 2020.
Internationally, The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s $173 million overseas debut recorded the second-biggest animated movie opening of all time behind only Frozen 2 ($228.2 million). Considering the other four movies on the top five-biggest animated box office openings were remakes or sequels to Disney or Pixar’s previous box office smashes, the fact that The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a hit as the introductory installment is all the more impressive. In fact, the last theatrical adaptation of Mario, 1993’s live-action Super Mario Bros., bombed at the box office, so there was no precedent set for the 2023 animated movie’s success.
Super Mario Bros Has A Boundless Future (Unlike Most Disney Franchises)
The box office achievements of The Super Mario Bros. Movie are also worrying for Disney due to the Universal movie’s potential for a long-lasting franchise future. While Disney has certainly extended its animated stories with multiple successful sequels, such as the Toy Story franchise’s five movies, Frozen’s impending third installment, and various live-action remakes of their animated classics, there comes a point when many of the studio’s animated film series must come to an end. The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s potential franchise future doesn’t have this problem, as there are countless video games, cartoons, and iterations of the Mario characters to place in sequels.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s boundless future also includes spinoffs and crossovers with other Nintendo properties. Similar to how The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s Donkey Kong characters were integrated into the Mario franchise, there are Nintendo games like The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, and Star Fox that could be brought into upcoming movies. Due to these endless possibilities, figuring out how to prolong the Super Mario Bros. franchise isn’t as big of a concern to Universal as it is for Disney franchises.
Super Mario Bros Doesn’t Need A Good Story To Work
One massive advantage that The Super Mario Bros. Movie has over Disney animated franchises is that the Nintendo video game adaptation doesn’t require a good story to be successful. Among The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s mixed reviews, many critical responses on Rotten Tomatoes noted that the film was lacking a compelling plot, narrative, and character-building components. Nevertheless, the film is still a massive hit, with some of the most positive reviews noting that the story was inconsequential to the movie’s success. Instead, many were simply satisfied to see classic Mario characters, video game levels, and notable locations adapted with dazzling animation on the big screen.
While The Super Mario Bros. Movie doesn’t need a good story in order to break box office records, Disney’s animated movies do. The highest-grossing Disney-owned animated films have incredible stories that are adored by critics and audiences alike, such as Frozen and its sequel, The Lion King, Incredibles 2, Toy Story 3, Zootopia, and Finding Dory. While the 2019 remake of The Lion King is an outlier, the story is still integral to the film’s success, and is the same one that earned the animated original a Certified Fresh 93% critics score on Rotten Tomatoes. Meanwhile, The Super Mario Bros. Movie holds a 57% Rotten Tomatoes critics score, proving the Nintendo adaptation can break records without critical support.
Illumination Keeps Beating Disney Animated Movies At The Box Office
Since the pandemic, Universal’s Illumination studio has churned out several hit films against a struggling box office climate, which have held their own against Disney animated movies. For instance, Illumination’s 2021 sequel Sing 2 earned $409 million worldwide, whereas Encanto, which was released only a month prior, accumulated only $256.8 million. Considering Sing 2 premiered only a week after Spider-Man: No Way Home, the success of the Universal movie is even more noteworthy. The following year, Illumination’s Minions: The Rise of Gru became the highest-grossing animated film of 2022 with $940 million worldwide, far surpassing Disney’s box office bombs Lightyear ($226.4 million) and Strange World ($73.6 million) (via Box Office Mojo).
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is expected to keep Universal’s animation movies’ edge over Disney at the box office in 2023, as the latter’s upcoming movies Elemental and Wish aren’t projected to come anywhere close to the financial heights of the Nintendo adaptation. While part of the problem with Disney animated movies’ box office struggles could be due to the expectation that the films will arrive for streaming on Disney Plus in a timely manner, the box office success of Universal’s movies proves that family-friendly projects have a huge market in theaters. Rather, Disney’s best bet for countering The Super Mario Bros. Movie’s box office success in 2023 is the upcoming Guardians of the Galaxy installment.
Can Any Of Disney’s Upcoming Animated Movies Compete With Super Mario Bros?
Disney’s 2023 animated movies Elemental and Wish aren’t expected to reach the same commercial heights as The Super Mario Bros. Movie. Rather, Disney likely won’t have an animated movie with similar box office prowess until the studio releases another sequel to one of its beloved franchises. Disney’s Inside Out 2 is scheduled to arrive in theaters in June 2024, which is the most likely opportunity for the studio to have a massive animated box office smash. However, in the time between The Super Mario Bros. Movie and Inside Out 2, Universal will have already released a third Trolls movie, Illumination’s Migration, and Kung Fu Panda 4.
Sources: Rotten Tomatoes, Box Office Mojo
