Universal/Lighting
EXCLUSIVE: The Super Mario Bros. movie has set its Netflix premiere date for the US, Deadline has learned, while it remains present on Peacock, where it debuted in August. The record-breaking film from Universal and Illumination will premiere on the platform on December 3rd, joining a slate of titles the whole family can enjoy.
With the holidays just around the corner, with the prospect of a huge increase in viewership, it’s the time of year when blocking titles of this nature is crucial. In 2022, family-friendly series and films were in the top 10 TV or film lists in 59 countries every week from Thanksgiving to Christmas. During the same period, family-friendly films also landed in at least three of the world’s top 10 English films each week.
Other family-friendly offerings coming soon to Netflix include Best. Christmas. Always! (November 16), Adam Sandler’s animated film Leo (November 21), The Bad Guys: A Very Bad Holiday (November 30), Family Switch (November 30), Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (December 15) and Pokémon Concierge, which premieres in December.
Based on Shigeru Miyamoto’s popular Nintendo games, “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” is an origin story of our two Brooklyn plumbers who are brothers and best friends: Mario (Chris Pratt), the brave one with the “let’s go” attitude, and the constantly anxious Luigi (Charlie Day), who would rather not go anywhere. We begin with the Super Mario Brothers dealing with their struggling plumbing business and end on a turbulent adventure through the Mushroom Kingdom. On their journey we meet a group of familiar, lovable characters who ultimately band together to defeat the power-hungry villain Bowser (Jack Black).
Starring Keegan-Michael Key, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Sebastian Maniscalco and others, the film was directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, with Pierre Leduc and Fabien Polack as co-directors. The script was written by Matthew Fogel and produced by Chris Meledandri and Miyamoto of Illumination, EPs Brett Hoffman, Bill Ryan and Yusuke Beppu. After its theatrical release in April, the film grossed over $1.36 billion worldwide. In addition to being the second-highest-grossing title of the year, it is now also the highest-grossing video game adaptation of all time and the third-highest-grossing animated film in history.