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The Super Mario Bros Movie surpasses $1 billion globally

This is the fifth movie since the onset of the Covid pandemic to hit $1bn

Peony Hirwani
Monday 01 May 2023 05:37 BST
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The Super Mario Bros. Movie, official teaser trailer

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The Super Mario Bros Movie has earned over $1bn at the global box office.

As of Sunday (30 April), the animated film grossed $490m in North America and $532m internationally.

The film, which opened in theatres on 5 April, is the fifth movie after the onset of the Covid pandemic to hit $1bn, following Spider-Man: No Way Home, Top Gun: Maverick, Jurassic World Dominion and Avatar: The Way of Water.

The animated film, adapted from Nintendo’s hit video game franchise, has the voice talents of Chris Pratt, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Anya Taylor-Joy and Keegan-Michael Key.

Pratt voices Mario, while Taylor-Joy plays Princess Peach.

In The Independent’s two-star review of the film, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “Instead of a moustachioed, hyperactive Italian plumber hopping across platforms and down pipes, we were presented with a depressive Bob Hoskins trapped in what looked like the rotting set of a Broadway musical production of Blade Runner.

“Peach’s old damsel-in-distress routine has undergone the obvious gender flip. Mario is given a moment of supposed defeat, in which he remembers his brother’s love and storms back into battle, in a scene that would feel more suitable to a film about superheroes rather than plumbers.”

Speaking to Digital Spy last month, Taylor-Joy explained why the filmmakers opted to subvert the “damsel in distress” trope that has informed the Mario franchise.

LAS DIEZ PELICULAS
LAS DIEZ PELICULAS (AP)

“I think it’s ushering it into a new era,” said the Queen’s Gambit star. “I think people are looking forward to seeing characters in a different way that they haven’t before. And we’re in a period of immense shift.

“When I first came out of this film, I felt so honoured and inspired by seeing this character. I just felt so proud, and she… I don’t know. It’s strange to be inspired by your own character, but I just left so excited for the generation of kids that was going to see a female leader in this way. I thought it was so cool.”

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