He’s not quite here yet, but despiteThe Super Mario Bros. Movienot arriving in theaters until April 2023, Illumination and Universal Pictures’ past practices already suggest a foreseeable window next year for Mario to land on Netflix.
Nintendo has already released three different trailers or teaser clips for theMariomovie, with the latest one being dropped during The Game Awards, and overall marketing efforts are ramping up with McDonald’s exclusive toy lineup also becoming available in many parts of the world. It goes without saying that given the past performance of other beloved video game mascots such as Sonic and Pikachu, Illumination and Nintendo have high expectations for the animated film’s box office potential before it hits streaming.
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As to when that could be,ComicBook.comprovides some interesting insight that points to an ongoing deal signed between Universal and Netflix back in 2021, according to which Illumination and Dreamworks productions can head to streaming once a four-month exclusivity period is over. While the current standard for most movies is a 45-day theatrical run followed shortly by VOD availability, recent examples from these two studios tend to shift their films to Peacock streaming after 70 days. All things considered,The Super Mario Bros. Moviecould pop up on Netflix no sooner than October 2023.
As a point of comparison, one ofIllumination’s prized properties,Minions: The Rise of Gru, premiered on July 1 this year to collect a whopping $939.4m in worldwide revenue before it was added to Peacock on September 23 (84 days) for a limited 4-month period.Minions: The Rise of Gruwill become available on Netflix starting June 16, 2025, for a total of 10 months, and this is the kind of scheme that could pan out forSuper Mario Bros.
Currently, Nintendo fans have high expectations for theMariomovie as not only have the previews shown fantastic renditions of the worlds made famous by the games, there are now even rumors that the nextMariogame could add certain elements from the movie. Even the release ofMcDonald’s Mario toys has confirmed prior leakscoming from Japan that pointed to Luma showing up in the film, which means Rosalina could also appear to start laying the ground for apossibleSuper Mario Galaxysequel in the future.
The Super Mario Bros. movieis scheduled to be released on Jul 19, 2025.
