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Rebecca Rubin Film and Media Reporter Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach are poised to clobber the box office competition as “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” readies to power past the $100 million mark in its opening weekend. Universal and Illumination’s big screen adaptation of the popular video game, which opens in 4,000 North American theaters on Wednesday, looks to collect a towering $125 million or more in its first five days of release. It’ll be the second 2023 release, following Disney’s “Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania” ($106 million) to open above $100 million. “Mario” will easily lead domestic box office charts over last weekend’s champ, “Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” as well as fellow newcomer “Air,” a sports drama directed by Ben Affleck.

Widely considered to be one of the greatest videogame franchises ever, Super Mario Bros. is an iconic, generation-spanning success that has taken on many iterations to always keep up with the times. One area in which it failed miserably was the 1993 live-action film version that starred Bob Hoskins and John Leguizamo as Mario and Luigi, Brooklyn-based plumbers who go on a fantastical adventure. It was a critical and commercial flop, though it managed to find some bit of a cult following in the ensuing decades.

It’s a-him! Chris Pratt hasn’t shied away from discussing doubts about his casting as the titular character in The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

EXCLUSIVE: Illumination/Universal/Nintendo’s Super Mario Bros Movie just landed on tracking this morning ahead of its Easter weekend release, and the animated film is shaping up to make at least $85M-$90M+ over its Wednesday through Sunday launch and that’s on the conservative side.

Grab your kart and go!

Zack Sharf Digital News Director Chris Pratt’s voice role as Mario in “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” has been a point of debate ever since he was cast. Pratt is not Italian, after all, and many fans were left baffled when the movie’s first trailer dropped last October and revealed Pratt’s Brooklyn-heavy Mario voice. It’s not a concern for the film’s directors, Michael Jelenic and Aaron Horvath. The filmmakers told Total Film magazine that casting Pratt made sense given the Mario at the center of their story. “It’s a bit of an origin tale. It’s the story of Mario becoming Super Mario,” Horvath said about the film, adding that finding the perfect Mario voice meant finding an actor who could believably portray a plumber from Brooklyn who is “a blue-collar guy from a family of Italian immigrants.”

trailer, Jack Black plays the villain Bowser, who directs his army of Koopa Troopas to burn down a kingdom belonging to penguins in search of a star that will grant him invincibility.The movie is directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic (“Teen Titans Go!”, “Teen Titans Go! To the Movies”) from a screenplay by Matthew Fogel (“The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part”, “Minions: The Rise of Gru”).

The highly anticipated Illumination Entertainment/Universal movie The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be opening on Wednesday, April 5 around the world before Easter weekend instead of Good Friday, April 7.

Jordan Moreau Mario is powering up his release date. Universal and Illumination’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will now hit theaters around the world two days earlier than expected, the company announced Tuesday. The movie’s new release date is Wednesday, April 5, instead of its original Friday, April 7. In addition to going wide domestically, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will release in more than 60 markets around the world, including China, Australia, France Germany, Italy, Brazil Mexico and the U.K. and Ireland. There are around 10 markets in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe opening on a variety of dates in April and May, Universal also announced. “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” will release in Japan on April 28, timed to the Golden Week Holidays.

Universal/Illumination/Nintendo’s The Super Mario Bros Movie has become the latest Hollywood title to secure a release date in China. The big-screen spin on the iconic videogame franchise will hit Chinese cinemas on April 5, in time for Ching Ming Festival and in step with some other international markets as well as two days before the domestic release on April 7. 

excellent and so, so fun. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, two of the mad geniuses behind the great “Teen Titans GO! To the Movies” and featuring a starry cast that also includes Jack Black, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Seth Rogen, Keegan-Michael Key and Fred Armisen, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” could be very special indeed – a corporately engineered, synergized product (keep in mind the theme park land is opening at Universal Studios Hollywood around the same time) that also succeeds as a movie in its own right.

Anya Taylor-Joy is lending her voice to give life to Princess Peach in the upcoming The Super Mario Bros. Movie. To prepare for the role, the Queen’s Gambit star turned into a gamer.

Nintendo has released the first trailer for the upcoming Super Mario movie – check it out below.The company debuted the trailer in a special Nintendo Direct presentation on Thursday (October 6), after a poster showing the animation style was shared on social media earlier this week.The project is a collaboration between Nintendo and Illumination, the animation studio behind the Despicable Me franchise, Sing and The Secret Life Of Pets.Chris Pratt provides the voice of Mario, alongside Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Jack Black as Bowser, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, and Keegan-Michael Key as Toad.Charles Martinet, the original voice of Mario in the games, is also set to appear in various undisclosed cameo roles.The film is directed by duo Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who are best known for co-developing the DC series Teen Titans Go! and film spin-off Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. It’s written by Matthew Fogel, whose previous work includes Minions: The Rise Of Gru and The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part.Speaking to Variety earlier this year, Pratt teased that his Mario voice is “unlike anything you’ve heard” in the games.“I worked really closely with the directors and trying out a few things and landed on something that I’m really proud of and can’t wait for people to see and hear,” Pratt said.

Universal and Illumination’s Nintendo movie Super Mario Bros about the famed videogame plumbers, kart drivers and squashers of turtles is zipping from its planned December 21 release date to April 7, which is Easter weekend 2023.

Marc Malkin Senior Film Awards, Events & Lifestyle EditorAccording to Chris Pratt, his voice performance as Mario in the upcoming feature adaptation of the Super Mario Bros. video game will be “unlike anything you’ve heard.”Variety got the chance to catch up with Pratt at the Wednesday night premiere of his new Amazon Prime Video series “The Terminal List” (more on that later!) to talk about finding his voice for the film, which co-stars Charlie Day as Luigi.There’s been much internet discussion over Pratt’s casting in the animated film as the Italian plumber despite his non-Italian background, with critics expressing concern that his accent could potentially be offensive.

Universal and Illumination’s Nintendo movie Super Mario Bros about the famed videogame plumbers, kart drivers and squashers of turtles is zipping from its Dec. 21 release date this year to April 7, 2023, which is Easter weekend.

The cast for the new Super Mario Bros. movie is proving to be stacked with premier Hollywood talent right out of the gate.