What’s the next Super Mario Bros. movie? ? Hollywood Hunts video games

To call the success of “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” a testament to video game intellectual property would be doing Illumination and Nintendo a disservice. Universal confirmed it grossed $454 million worldwide in its first week and the Mario movie achieved something even HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ didn’t: it was a hit. four quadrants.

A ton of kids turned out, of course, and it didn’t hurt that the last theatrically released family movie was months ago with “Puss in Boots: The Last Wish.” However, as IndieWire reported last weekend, 84% of the film’s audience was over the age of 13. It’s a rare film that draws both kid-friendly crowds and nostalgic adults, has played for all genders and ethnicities, and has done well in international markets. , and that made it the biggest global animated opening of all time.

Such success inevitably sparks a frenzy of budding imitators, but this level of performance can’t be expected from upcoming adult video game adaptations like Eli Roth’s “Borderlands” or Neill Blomkamp’s “Gran Turismo.” Likewise, no one will put their children in front of in-development TV shows like Amazon’s “God of War” or Netflix’s “Bioshock.”

But could we expect similar chemistry from other PG-rated, kid-friendly video game movies?

“That’s the sweet spot,”. “Video game movies have had a very spotty record at the box office, and maybe the codebreaker is PG animation when you’re trying to get box office numbers.”

While those on the way are all live with CGI, they include Paramount and Sega’s “Sonic the Hedgehog 3” (slated for release in 2024), a sequel to “Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” in development at Legendary, and a ” Minecraft” movie starring Jason Momoa that Warner Bros. just released on April 4, 2025.

While 2020’s “Sonic the Hedgehog” can take credit for sparking renewed interest in video game adaptations, “Super Mario Bros.” made more money in five days than “Sonic” in his lifetime. (It peaked at $317 million worldwide, but the pandemic had something to do with that.) “Sonic 2,” released around this time last year, opened at $72 million and grossed a total of $405 million worldwide; “Super Mario Bros.” exceeded that in a week.

Still, it’s no stretch to believe that a third Sonic movie could outperform its predecessors, especially with a Christmas 2024 release window. In the meantime, Paramount is also working on a spin-off series for the buddy. of Sonic, Knuckles (voiced by Idris Elba), which could further strengthen the brand. This Paramount+ show could be coming later this year.

“Pokémon: Detective Pikachu” was a $449 million hit in 2019 (against a $150 million budget), but there was no confirmed sequel until Legendary announced in March that the “Portlandia” co-creator Jonathan Krisel would direct. (Still TBD is the participation of the original film’s star, Ryan Reynolds.) A regular clip of Pokémon games keeps the property hugely popular among millennials and Gen-Z, and the animated series is still running on Netflix.

WBD’s “Minecraft” is a wildcard. The live-action film will be produced by Mary Parent and Roy Lee with Swedish video game studio Mojang, but this game doesn’t lend itself to easy interpretation. Rather than playing with discernable characters, it’s a choose-your-own 3D “sandbox” game with a blocky look. The die-hard fanbase of kids who put in hours of the 12-year-old’s game is huge, but the appeal may not carry over to their parents.

There’s also a Pac-Man live-action movie in development with Japanese video game publisher Bandai Namco and Justin Baldoni’s Wayfarer Studios, but would anyone say no to a series based on Epic’s Fortnite? Games? Would Sony take a chance on a Crash Bandicoot movie? It’s not the only Playstation game with cross-generational appeal; What about Spyro the Dragon?

And then there’s Nintendo, which has the most untapped, family-friendly video game intellectual property. It’s only taken timid steps in exploiting these characters: Nintendo cameos in movies like “Wreck-It Ralph” or “Pixels,” a short-lived cartoon “Donkey Kong Country” from late 90s and an early 2000s Kirby anime. However, collecting 50% of the profits from the “SMB” should be enough to pique the interest of the Japanese company.

A Mario sequel seems almost inevitable (and we’re among those voting Wario and Waluigi as villains), but there’s also real potential in video game movies or shows like Kirby, Zelda and Animal Crossing, if Nintendo chooses. to go down that rainbow road. These are properties that could outperform and surprise as much as “Super Mario Bros.”

However, Dergarabedian notes that slapping “Super Mario” on the title wasn’t key to the film’s stratospheric success. Many had to be fine. The marketing had to land and make it clear that it was a kids movie. Universal and Illumination needed to be on the same page as Nintendo in staying true to the spirit and iconography of Mario. And the families had to come back to the halls.

And Dergarabedian admits when he’s wrong: his initial prediction was around $500 million. Now, “the sky’s the limit.”

“To flesh out the shot, it’s like capturing lightning in a bottle,” he said. “That will be a blueprint for other studios to put on the board and work through this and try to reverse engineer this thing. It’s not that easy.