After an extensive and successful run in theaters, Illumination finally set a streaming debut date for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.
Mario became this year’s first true blue blockbuster hit with the biggest opening and second weekends of 2023, breaking several other box office records on its way to breaking $1 billion in ticket sales.
Fighting through shockingly negative critic reviews, this film remains the highest-grossing movie of 2023 by a wide margin, allowing Illumination to keep it in theaters longer than most other big-screen hits of this current era.
Mario Movie Streaming Date Confirmed
Deadline announced that The Super Mario Bros. Movie will officially be available to stream on Peacock starting on August 3.
This will be exactly 120 days after the movie originally arrived on the big screen, which came on April 5.
Once The Super Mario Bros. Movie hits Peacock, it will stay there for four months before moving to Netflix in December, and then it will likely move back to Peacock once more in October 2024.
Will Mario Streaming Date Set New Trend?
Considering the roller-coaster ride that fans have seen for movies at the box office, this streaming move for The Super Mario Bros. Movie could incite other studios like Disney and Warner Bros. to reconsider their streaming strategy even further.
Recently, Disney has gotten into a trend of bringing movies to Disney+ approximately 90 days after hitting theaters, seen most recently for blockbusters like Ant-Man and The Wasp: Quantumania. However, that trend looks to be bucked with Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 being such a hit on the big screen, which will hopefully get studios to give their films a chance to succeed for longer at the box office.
Super Marios Bros. currently ranks amongst the 20 highest-grossing movies ever, showing that fans still have an appetite for the theatrical experience with films that become hits on that level.
And as shown with other movies like Avatar: The Way of Water, which became such a big streaming hit after winning at the box office, moves like this show an opportunity for success at all levels in the entertainment industry.
When Will Super Mario Bros. 2 Be Greenlit?
Looking forward, after seeing the Mario film become such a worldwide phenomenon, the obvious question is whether The Super Mario Bros. Movie 2 will become a reality sooner or later.
Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto has no doubt that more video-game movie adaptations will be in the works in the near future after the industry saw such success with this film.
Mario producer and Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri even teased that he was "not allowed to talk about that" when asked about sequel prospects, which is usually a phrase reserved for something that's in the works on some level.
Considering how big of a hit Mario became this year amongst stiff competition, it seems to be almost a surefire thing for Illumination to want to get a sequel in development relatively quickly.
And should this new outing become as successful on Peacock as it was over the last three months on the big screen, with clear plot points to follow up on, that decision will only be made easier for the studio.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is still currently playing in theaters, and it will begin streaming on Peacock on August 3.
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