The Super Mario Bros. Movie Budget

What is the budget of The Super Mario Bros. Movie?

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie," a family released in 2023, was directed by Aaron Horvath, Michael Jelenic and stars Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy. The production budget was $100,000,000, placing it in the high-budget range for family productions of its era.

Key Budget Allocation Categories

While specific budget breakdowns are not publicly available, typical cost drivers for a family production like this include:

• Talent Salaries & Producing Deals: Established comedic talent can command $15 to 20 million per film, with top-tier stars earning even more through producing credits and backend deals.
• Production & Location Filming: While comedies generally avoid the VFX costs of action films, location shooting in recognizable cities or exotic locales adds meaningful production expense.
• Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising): Comedies rely heavily on marketing to build opening-weekend momentum.

What were the major cost factors in The Super Mario Bros. Movie?

Several factors contributed to the overall production costs of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie."

• Talent Salaries: Talent Salaries & Producing Deals is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.
• Production: Production & Location Filming is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.
• Marketing: Marketing & P&A (Prints & Advertising) is one of the primary cost drivers in family productions of this scale.

How Does The Super Mario Bros. Movie's Budget Compare to Similar Films?

At $100,000,000, The Super Mario Bros. Movie sits in the high-budget range. Here is how it compares to productions with a similar budget:

• 1917 (2019): Budget $100,000,000, Worldwide Gross $446,064,352
• American Gangster (2007): Budget $100,000,000, Worldwide Gross $269,755,430
• Bad Boys: Ride or Die (2024): Budget $100,000,000 , Gross $404,547,819
• Batman Forever (1995): Budget $100,000,000, Worldwide Gross $336,529,144
• Bicentennial Man (1999): Budget $100,000,000, Worldwide Gross $87,423,861

The median budget for wide-release family films in the 2020s ranges from $30 to 80M for mid-budget to $150M+ for tentpoles.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Box Office Performance

"The Super Mario Bros. Movie" earned $573,954,955 domestically and $1,360,879,735 worldwide at the box office. Against a production budget of $100,000,000, the film performed strongly at the box office.

• Production Budget: $100,000,000
• Estimated Prints & Advertising (P&A): approximately $75
• Total Estimated Investment: approximately $175
• Worldwide Gross: $1,360,879,735
• Net Return: approximately +$1,260,879,735
• ROI: approximately +1261%

At approximately +1261%, The Super Mario Bros. Movie returned roughly $13.61 for every $1 of production budget invested during its theatrical run.

With a 1260.9% return on investment based on production budget alone, The Super Mario Bros. Movie comfortably surpassed its break-even threshold and proved to be a strong performer for its studio. These figures represent theatrical revenue only and do not include home entertainment, streaming licensing, or merchandise revenue, which further bolster the film's overall profitability.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Production History

Nintendo had been reluctant to license its properties for film adaptations after the critical and commercial failure of the 1993 live-action Super Mario Bros. movie. The path to a new film began when Shigeru Miyamoto, working on Virtual Console, recognized opportunities to combine software with video content. Sony attempted to secure the rights in 2014, with leaked emails from the Sony Pictures hack revealing that producer Avi Arad claimed to have "closed the deal," though this was later denied. The actual partnership formed after Miyamoto met Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri through Nintendo's work with Universal Parks & Resorts on Super Nintendo World, with formal discussions beginning in 2016 and an official announcement in January 2018.

Directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic were brought aboard in August 2021, and Matthew Fogel, who had written Minions: The Rise of Gru, penned the screenplay. The voice cast was revealed during a September 2021 Nintendo Direct presentation: Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Charlie Day as Luigi, Jack Black as Bowser, and Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong. Charles Martinet, who had voiced Mario in games since 1991, received cameo roles as the brothers' father and a Brooklyn citizen named Giuseppe.

The casting of Chris Pratt generated significant backlash from fans who felt the role should have gone to Martinet or an Italian actor. Voice actress Tara Strong publicly criticized the decision, calling it an example of Hollywood's disregard for professional voice actors. During production, multiple accent approaches were tested and rejected: Pratt's original "New York, Italian guy" accent was scrapped as too reminiscent of Tony Soprano, while Charlie Day's Goodfellas-style accent was also cut. Seth Rogen insisted on using his natural speaking voice, stating simply, "I don't do voices."

Animation was handled by Illumination Studios Paris, with production officially underway by September 2020 and animation wrapping in October 2022. The directors aimed to balance stylized animation with realism, treating Mario as "more of an action game" and bringing a blockbuster approach to the action sequences. The Rainbow Road sequence proved the most technically challenging, as the road itself functioned as a visual effect requiring extensive processing time. Color grading was performed by Jason Hanel at Company 3 using DaVinci Resolve to maintain visual consistency between Brooklyn's grounded realism and the Mushroom Kingdom's fantasy aesthetic.

Awards and Recognition

2 wins & 49 nominations total

Critical Reception

The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023) received mixed reviews from critics but was embraced by general audiences. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a 59% approval rating based on 285 reviews, with an average rating of 5.8 out of 10. Metacritic assigned a score of 46 out of 100, indicating mixed or average reviews. Audiences were far more enthusiastic, awarding it an A CinemaScore and making it one of the highest-grossing animated films of all time.

Critics praised the film's vibrant animation, faithful recreation of the game worlds, and energetic pacing. Jack Black's vocal performance as Bowser was widely singled out as a highlight, with his original song "Peaches" becoming a viral sensation. Keegan-Michael Key's Toad also drew positive attention. The film's visual design earned consistent praise for capturing the colorful aesthetic of the Nintendo games while translating it into a cinematic experience that felt genuinely immersive.

The primary criticism targeted the thin screenplay and Chris Pratt's vocal performance as Mario, which many reviewers felt lacked emotional range and sounded too similar to his natural speaking voice. One reviewer described the film as "a blandly efficient piece of brand management," suggesting it prioritized avoiding the failures of the 1993 live-action adaptation over developing a compelling original narrative. Critics also noted that the heavy reliance on game references, while delighting fans, left the story feeling more like a series of set pieces than a cohesive cinematic experience. Despite the critical divide, the film's commercial success led to an announced sequel.