Illumination's Super Mario Bros (2023)

[Lucky Planet]

It reached 1 billion.

 

[Mike S]

It reached 1 billion.

Nintendo is going to have a good Christmas this year.

 

[Gartooth]

Per Deadline: The Mario movie has crossed 1 billion at the global box office

They also mention this is the best 4th weekend hold ever for a Universal movie in the domestic market. It's also now the #2 animated movie ever in the domestic market after this weekend, behind only Incredibles 2.

 

[Jerroddragon]

So maybe they will just do a film a year and not need one but dies anyone think Universal might open another animation studio or add to the dream works/illumination team

So universal can make sure they do original films plus more Nintendo films?

 

[Gartooth]

So maybe they will just do a film a year and not need one but dies anyone think Universal might open another animation studio or add to the dream works/illumination team

So universal can make sure they do original films plus more Nintendo films?

My guess is a Nintendo movie will only be once every couple years as an event for the studio. Even though the money is there, Nintendo wants to be in control and involved in the process so I don't think the production timelines can be sped up *too* fast. Also in-house IP are still valuable cause Universal gets a greater share of the profits vs. stuff like Mario where Nintendo will take a big share.

 

[Jerroddragon]

My guess is a Nintendo movie will only be once every couple years as an event for the studio. Even though the money is there, Nintendo wants to be in control and involved in the process so I don't think the production timelines can be sped up *too* fast. Also in-house IP are still valuable cause Universal gets a greater share of the profits vs. stuff like Mario where Nintendo will take a big share.

Maybe but that would also kinda limit things, lie lets say a DK movie is out in 2-3 years, that would mean a mario sequel is 4 years away minimum? Plus Luigi Mansion spin off and zelda at 5+ years away

 

[Nick]

Maybe but that would also kinda limit things, lie lets say a DK movie is out in 2-3 years, that would mean a mario sequel is 4 years away minimum? Plus Luigi Mansion spin off and zelda at 5+ years away

Not everything happens at once.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Not everything happens at once.

Not saying it has to but opening a new studio or adding more teams to Dream work/illumination would make sense unless Nintendo films really are just every few years

Minions will have a movie in a few years, shrek, plus dreamworks seems to love making new IPS which is great

So mainly thinking of a way to keep it where there staff get to still make passion projects along with Nintendo/Minion films/Shrek films

 

[Nick]

Not saying it has to but opening a new studio or adding more teams to Dream work/illumination would make sense unless Nintendo films really are just every few years

Minions will have a movie in a few years, shrek, plus dreamworks seems to love making new IPS which is great

So mainly thinking of a way to keep it where there staff get to still make passion projects along with Nintendo/Minion films/Shrek films

Opening a new studio is not something easily done.

 

[Jerroddragon]

Opening a new studio is not something easily done.

Which is why I also said opening another team on the animation studios they own

Also so people dont think im here to argue, I was just asking and throwing out the idea Mario has killed it at the box office and park, so the question is do you just do business as normal or see there is money to be made with these Nintendo IP and jump on them now.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

My guess is 2025/2026 we get the anticipated DK film that was announced before this film came out.

Maybe another year or two after for either Luigi Mansion or sequel, but after that I expect 1 or 2 a year. Studios like to see things work more than once before overloading on the idea.

 

[rageofthegods]

Which is why I also said opening another team on the animation studios they own

Also so people dont think im here to argue, I was just asking and throwing out the idea Mario has killed it at the box office and park, so the question is do you just do business as normal or see there is money to be made with these Nintendo IP and jump on them now.

It's still a hard thing to do. It's not as much as before, but Illumination's CEO Chris Meledandri is still intimately involved in each project, and ramping up production with another team necessarily means less attention to each project. There's a reason why the MCU movies have gotten worse as they make more film and TV each year.

You also run into excess capacity problems pretty quickly. Universal is already the most prolific animation studio in the business, making two, sometimes three Dreamworks movies and an Illumination movie or two every year. Every year, they have to contend with a Disney movie and a Pixar movie hogging room on the schedule. Pretty soon, you run out of release spots and have to start dating movies further out, and before you know it you have a big, expensive animation team running idle or at lower capacity. It's just not ideal.

 

[Mike S]

There's a reason why the MCU movies have gotten worse as they make more film and TV each year.

They were doing well for the first 10 or so years *sigh*

 

[quinnmac000]

So maybe they will just do a film a year and not need one but dies anyone think Universal might open another animation studio or add to the dream works/illumination team

So universal can make sure they do original films plus more Nintendo films?

They don't need another studio, they just need a bigger team. Dreamworks has 30 projects in some level of development right now from television and films which do share teams and Illumination has roughly 15-20 projects in development including a television series they are releasing next month. Chris Meledandri oversees both technically but there is a limit to what they can do. There are so many things they can allocate resources too while maintaining semblance of quality. A typical animated film takes 3-4 years to make unless they put all resources solely on a project.

Dreamworks maintains their output by outsourcing animation but with third party and brand new original IPs, i think they want to keep things in house which requires a lot of money.

 

[tielo]

Nintendo sees themselves as a top brand. They will take every film and television series very serious and that will take a lot of time. And rightfully so as they have an excellent brand. Gamers have to wait for a new game many, many years so I think Nintendo, who is financially very solid, won't go for mark saturation but for quality content that is an event when it drops (like a Bond movie).

 

[Mike S]

Nintendo sees themselves as a top brand. They will take every film and television series very serious and that will take a lot of time. And rightfully so as they have an excellent brand. Gamers have to wait for a new game many, many years so I think Nintendo, who is financially very solid, won't go for mark saturation but for quality content that is an event when it drops (like a Bond movie).

I agree but there’s also the argument that Marvel was very successful for those first 10 years because kids were literally growing up with those movies. If it were me I would aim for either 1 movie a year or at least every two years. Plus you have to consider there’s multiple franchises so would you really put off something like Mario sequels for other franchises?

 

[Nick]

I think this movie has a fairly decent shot still of cracking the all-time Worldwide Top 10 tbh.

 

[Cup_Of_Coffee]

Once June hits it’ll be interesting to see it’s legs into summer. June has so many big hitters.

 

[tielo]

I agree but there’s also the argument that Marvel was very successful for those first 10 years because kids were literally growing up with those movies. If it were me I would aim for either 1 movie a year or at least every two years. Plus you have to consider there’s multiple franchises so would you really put off something like Mario sequels for other franchises?

Shigeru Miyamoto's Mario character previously had only 1 movie to it's name and it was terrible. It took Nintendo decades to make a brave step to hand their ip over to Universal for theme park and movie use. They want this brand to live longer than 10 years. Milking the cow dry, what Disney does all the time, is just short term gain and killing their franchises. Star Wars did great without movies for decades and sold more merch than than after Mickey got it's greasy fingers at the brand. This Japanese company is all about moderation and that is amazing and very smart.

 

[Jake S]

Star Wars did great without movies for decades and sold more merch than than after Mickey got it's greasy fingers at the brand.

are you sure about this? I don't think consolidation is good for consumers by any means, but I don't think disney's ownership of the Star Wars brand has hurt its merchandise sales.