‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Is 20th-Highest Grossing Film In History

Forbes Lifestyle Arts ‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Is 20th-Highest Grossing Film In History Mark Hughes Contributor Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. I write about films, especially superhero films, and Hollywood. Following May 28, 2023, 04:52pm EDT | Press play to listen to this article! Got it! Share to Facebook Share to Twitter Share to Linkedin After another dazzling week of strong box office holds and obvious audience enthusiasm for the arrival of summer movie season, The Super Mario Bros.

Movie is now officially the 20th-highest grossing movie worldwide in cinema history with $1. 278 billion in global receipts, and is just $6 million away from taking the #19 spot on the charts away from Frozen. Official image from “The Super Mario Bros.

Movie” Source: Universal, Illumination Already the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time , the Nintendo-based The Super Mario Bros Movie topped $1 billion on its fourth weekend of release . It’s current gross and likely eventually final box office total position The Super Mario Bros. Movie as inevitably one of the top contenders for highest grossing film of 2023.

Regardless of whether it wins that particular battle, I think Mario Bros. will wind up in the top-three or at the very least top-five grossing films of the year. The Super Mario Bros.

Movie is now only the third animated film in the top 20, in terms of what we typically think of as animated films that present themselves as — and are generally obvious to recognize as — animation. Alternately, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the fourth (not third) animated film in the all-time box office top 20, if we count 2019’s The Lion King .

However, it’s worth taking a moment to note The Lion King — and its predecessor, The Jungle Book — represents a unique form of computer animation specifically intended to “trick” us into perceiving it as live action, and it even includes a live-action shot in the opening scenes. MORE FOR YOU Biden Will ‘End Up Killing It’—Serious Crypto Warning Could Spell Chaos For The Price Of Bitcoin And Ethereum As Debt Ceiling Deal Reached 30 Memorial Day Furniture Sales To Give Your Home A Summer Refresh The Best Memorial Day Mattress Sales For Steep Savings And Better Sleep MORE FROM FORBES ‘Avatar 2’ Topping Massive $2. 3 Billion Global Box Office By Mark Hughes Typical animated films display their animated nature openly, taking advantage of representing worlds and characters within the environment of animation, with all that it allows and entails.

Conversely, computer animated films that mimic live action are attempting to appear not as animation, but rather as live action. They want us to experience their stories as if it is live-action, and they bring very different things to the table than other animated efforts. So I categorize them as a separate and unique sub-category of animation when I think of animated films, since it’s attempting to do something very different.

As hyper-realistic computer animation improves, films like The Lion King and The Jungle Book , as well as films like Avatar: The Way of Water that overlap both live action and animation, will become more and more common. Even what we think of as typically live action franchises — like the MCU and upcoming DCU for example, plus probably Jurassic Park , Transformers , and other VFX-heavy series — will increasingly fall into that space blurring the lines between live action and animation. When does a film cease being live action that includes animation, and become animation that includes live action? How much of one or the other tips the scales? Perhaps it will become a distinction without a difference, at least for a certain subset of such films, and maybe that means we simply need to expand our vocabulary and our understanding of what these things really are.

For now, however, I can look at The Super Mario Bros. Movie , The Lion King , and Avatar: The Way of Water and tell that each is a different thing from the others, but also that The Lion King just feels closer to what Avatar: The Way of Water is than The Super Mario Bros. Movie .

That’s my perception of things right now, anyway, so feel free to disagree, of course. I think it’s generally harder for most typical animated films to break into the top grossing films in a given year, let alone climb the all-time box office charts as the highest-grossing movies of all time. MORE FROM FORBES Critic Identifies The Secret Ingredients That Make Screenwriters Better Than A.

I. By Mark Hughes Certain exceptions exist, of course — Pixar, Disney, Universal, and others have a few blockbuster global franchises that can put up billion dollar box office results with sequels, such as the Toy Story , Frozen , and Despicable Me series. But in the era of Marvel, Star Wars , Avatar , Fast & Furious , and a small handful of other consistent top performers, it’s hard for movies that rely primarily on family and children audiences to break into the rarified top tiers of all-time cinematic performers.

As live action films increasingly blur the lines between real and VFX, between live and animation, I think it’s helpful to maintain a specific and consistent space for animated films that meet the typical boundaries and definitions of what we think of and mean, and what audiences perceive and expect, when we talk about “animated movies” or “cartoons” and other such terms. Consider that if The Super Mario Bros. Movie had included a live-action performer in an elaborate costume as a character within the film, it could hypothetically ask, “Why aren’t we considered live action like Avatar: The Way of Water ?” Likewise, what if the next Avatar: The Way of Water includes lots of mo-cap but is entirely rendered with CGI, without overtly depicting the real life faces of any actors? Would we switch to calling the franchise animated? Is mo-cap that different from rotoscoping, when it comes to methods of animation? Food for thought.

Regardless of whether you consider it the third or fourth animated movie in the top 20 all-time highest grossing releases, The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a major hit and will spawn plenty of sequels. The question is, will it continue to meet with the same sort of overwhelmingly positive reception from audiences? The franchise has to keep telling great stories that resonate and entertain at the same level, and that requires great writers, storytellers, actors, filmmakers, and many others, so we’ll see how long it takes Hollywood to remember that.

And with billions of dollars in revenue from the box office and merchandising at stake, their memory better start improving fast. Be sure to check back for updates soon, dear readers, on The Super Mario Bros. Movie and other releases.

I’ll have plenty of box office analysis, news, and reviews for you all summer long. Follow me on Twitter . Mark Hughes Editorial Standards Print Reprints & Permissions.