Universal and Nintendo’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie,” which has just hit Peacock this week, has been the year’s biggest success story at cinemas thus far (though “Barbie” could well supersede it).
According to Nintendo itself in an investor call this week, the April-June quarter saw a 50% jump increase on this time last year – marking the highest first-quarter profit recorded by the company.
That can be tied to the launch of the new “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” game, the $1.349 billion dollars in global box-office the ‘Mario’ movie brought in, and that film’s boost to sales of Mario games – with the company’s mobile and IP related income jumping 190% on this quarter last year.
It has been such a success that Nintendo reiterated in their quarterly report that more movies and other ‘visual content’ are set to be a big part of the company’s overall vision going forward:
“By expanding Nintendo IP in areas outside the dedicated video game platform, we create new opportunities for consumers to encounter Nintendo IP, and this invigorates our overall business. Based on the various effects that we have confirmed through the release of this movie, we will continue our efforts towards visual content-related initiatives.”
Nintendo spent nearly three decades avoiding adapting any of their IP in other media like movies and television, but now with the success of ‘Mario’ it’s expected others will soon follow the same path.
No official announcement has been made regarding a ‘Mario’ movie sequel just yet, though that’s not unexpected with the writer’s strike currently going on.
Source: Nintendo Japan