What Video Game Adaptations Can Learn From ‘Super Mario’ Movie
“The Super Mario Bros. Movie” didn’t just reverse the Nintendo character’s woeful history at the cinema with a successful opening — it shattered multiple records.
“Minions” animation studio Illumination and distributor Universal’s adaptation of the long-running “Super Mario” video game franchise nabbed a $146 million domestic opening weekend and more than $200 million for the five-day extended holiday weekend.
The turnout is all the more impressive considering the 1993 “Mario”’ live-action movie was a widely ridiculed box office bomb. More significantly, the 2023 “Mario” set a dramatic new bar for film adaptations of video games.
While several video game adaptations have seen global box office success, with 2022 films “Uncharted” and former record holder “Sonic the Hedgehog 2” among them, no such film has ever opened above $100 million domestically, let alone nearly $150 million, which is more than twice as much as what the second “Sonic” film opened to this time last year.
As both of Paramount’s “Sonic” films and Warner Bros.’ “Detective Pikachu” have shown, highly recognizable, family-friendly characters from the gaming realm appear to be the best way for these films to resonate with theatergoers, especially when animation is a core component of the package.
Fully live-action adaptations tend to have a more difficult time getting through if they don’t benefit from star power, as Sony’s “Uncharted” film did with Tom Holland just two months after “Spider-Man: No Way Home” was a massive success.
Because video game stories are much more difficult to adapt due to their interactive nature, they often tend to disappoint critics at the cinema. They’re also difficult to adapt on a budgetary level for live-action films, often requiring heavy special and visual effects that set the films up to be compared to their fully animated source material.
While the first “Sonic” film was a success, it was delayed many months so VFX editors could revise the look of the titular character after the film’s first trailer drew heavy criticism for Sonic’s uncanny appearance, which lacked a clear resemblance to the games.
Live-action adaptations can also fail if audiences and critics deem them not distinct enough from the games on which they’re based. 2005’s “Doom” was a commercial flop even with Dwayne Johnson in the lead role. The finished product was scrutinized for being too close in feel to playing the actual shooter games, with many scenes even shot from a first-person view as if you had the controller in hand.
Johnson would later get a second go-round at video game adaptations with 2018’s “Rampage,” based on a series of arcade games. Audiences’ loose familiarity with the source material allowed the film to resonate more simply as a Johnson vehicle after he had accrued much more star power at theaters, making the film more commercially successful despite negative reviews.
Unlike most live-action adaptations, animated films based on games are more likely to appeal to family audiences, making scrutiny from highbrow critics and audiences less relevant, especially when theaters have been deprived of flashy animated films from the major studios. As well as “Mario” has done in such a short amount of time, its critical reception has been mixed.
“Mario” outperforming Disney/Marvel’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania,” which cost twice as much to make, and Warner Bros./DC’s fledgling “Shazam! Fury of the Gods” highlights the need for theaters to show more than just expensive superhero fare in order to bring families back after they grew accustomed to the availability of Pixar and other animated film brands on streaming.
As for the future of video game adaptations at the box office, there is still a heavy emphasis on live-action films. Sony Pictures may have lucked out with its first “Uncharted” film, the debut release from PlayStation Productions, but it ought to more heavily consider IP at its disposal that would play well to families, namely kid-friendly franchises such as “Jak & Daxter,” “The Last Guardian” or “Ratchet & Clank.”
Gramercy Pictures did release an animated “Ratchet & Clank” adaptation in 2016, the distribution label’s last film before shuttering, but it failed critically and commercially. After 2021’s highly praised “Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart” for PlayStation 5 consoles, it’s worth revisiting with a major studio budget under the auspices of Sony Pictures Animation or a similar studio.
After all, Sony got at least one box office hit out of the “Angry Birds” mobile game in 2016. Why not take a cue from its gaming competitor and take animated adaptations more seriously?
