- Nintendo’s stock price surged Monday following the successful release of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie.”
- The film smashed box office records on its opening weekend after grossing $377 million worldwide.
- A successful release of the film could lead to more of Nintendo’s content reaching the big screen.
Nintendo’s stock surged 4% on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the U.S.-listed stock rose 2.5% on Monday. Successful release of “Theatrical version Super Mario Bros.”
An animated film with a gorgeous cast including Chris Pratt as Mario and Jack Black as Bowser. box office record broken Worldwide ticket sales for the weekend reached $377 million.
This makes the film the biggest worldwide opening in animated film history, and its success monetizes what is generally regarded as one of the deepest vaults of high-quality characters and stories, rivaled only by Disney. In that respect, it could help put Nintendo in high gear.
The success of the “Super Mario Bros. Movie” is unique in that, despite being PG-rated, it attracted more than just families to movie theaters. The film also attracted generations of adults who grew up playing various iterations of the hugely successful Mario game franchise.
In other words, nostalgia drove much of the success of the film’s release.
“This movie is based on an incredible IP that is loved by people of all ages,” said Universal Pictures distribution president. Veronica Kwan Vandenberg said.
Other records broken by the film include the largest video game opening of all time, the largest ever opening in 2023, and Illumination, the film production subsidiary of Universal, which was successful with Despicable Me. including the biggest ever opening of . ‘ and ‘Minions’ movies.
And with no blockbuster movies expected to hit theaters for at least another few weeks, the success is likely to continue for the foreseeable future. Also, the film has not yet been released in Japan, where it is scheduled for release on April 28, which could help the film’s lasting success at the global box office.
President of Domestic Distribution for Universal Jim Orr said.
Following last weekend’s box office success, more Mario could be coming. It may appear in the form of “The Mansion”, hinting that the post-credits sequence could foreshadow the plot of a yet-to-be-announced sequel.
“Listen, there’s a post-credits sequence at the end of the movie that gives us an idea of what the sequel will be like. And it gets me super excited. But the story of Luigi’s Mansion there was,” said Pratt. in a recent interview.
And Mario isn’t the only Nintendo character that could get the big screen treatment, especially after Nintendo signed a licensing deal with Illumination in 2018.
Details of Nintendo’s deal with Illumination are unclear, but JP Morgan believes the Super Mario Bros. movie could generate as much as $300 million in 2023 profits for Nintendo if it pulls in $1.45 billion in ticket sales worldwide. I’m assuming you can contribute.
JP Morgan also said the success of the Mario movies could boost Nintendo’s Mario video game sales, creating a flywheel effect that would benefit from more movie releases.
In a note Monday, JP Morgan said, “While we believe films can make a sizeable direct contribution to the bottom line, we are also focusing on Mario-related sales contributions centered around the game.