The Super Mario Bros. Movie is now the highest-grossing movie of 2023. The film, which hails from Despicable Me studio Illumination Entertainment, brings the popular Mario video game franchise to life with a cast that includes Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Day, Jack Black, Keegan Michael-Key, and Seth Rogen. In addition to earning the best opening weekend for an animated film ever this week, it also became the highest-grossing film to be adapted from a video game.

Per The Hollywood Reporter, the Super Mario Bros. box office records are continuing to rack up. As of Thursday, the film has officially racked up $508.7 million worldwide, making it the highest-grossing film of 2023. It has sured the previous record-holder, Marvel's Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, which earned $474.1 million.

Could Any 2023 Film Unseat Super Mario?

Chris Pratt as Mario rides his kart in The Super Mario Bros Movie.

One astonishing thing about The Super Mario Bros. Movie's gross is that it has broken all these records in just 9 days. This means that its final total could be a truly staggering sum. While it is undoubtedly setting a high-water mark for the 2023 box office, it remains to be seen if any film can top it.

The Super Mario Bros. cast is star-studded, but quite a few other factors are contributing to its success. First and foremost is audiences' familiarity with the source material, though that didn't prevent the original live-action Super Mario Bros. from 1993 from becoming a flop. The other factor is likely Illumination's knowledge of how to craft a movie designed to appeal to families across the globe, using the lessons honed from their ultra-successful Minions films.

It's possible for one of 2023's many tentpole blockbusters to eventually unseat The Super Mario Bros. Movie as the No. 1 film of the year. The schedule this year includes big films from huge franchises including the live-action The Little Mermaid, Fast X, and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One. However, it remains to be seen if those films have the necessary four-quadrant appeal to blast past Mario's dazzling run.

Source: THR