The Super Mario Bros. Movie its release date has been leaked. The animated adventure opens on April 5th in over 60 markets (it was previously set for April 7th). Giving the movie a five-day opening over the Easter weekend is an old Hollywood trick that helps boost its initial earnings and leads to trade-friendly headlines that herald early its success.
The film stars the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach, Chris Day as Luigi, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong and Jack Black as Bowser. It was originally scheduled to be released in December, but Illumination and Nintendo announced early last year that they were pushing it back to April. Throughout April and May, the film will be released in ten additional markets in Southeast Asia, Middle Eastern and Eastern Europe; The Japanese release is set to coincide with the Golden Week Holidays on April 28.
The movie will mark Mario’s first big-screen starring role since 1993’s Infamous Super Mario Bros., starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi, which bombed at the box office but became a cult classic that was “too good” in later years. Before that, the kids of the late 80s and early 90s had fun Super Mario Bros. Super show!a live-action / animated series starring Captain Lou Albano and Danny Wells.
The upcoming Mario movie will be a barometer for audience appetites for video game movies. Hollywood adaptations of gaming IPs have a long track record of (rightly) bombing at the box office and with critics. However, HBO is good The Last of Us series a notable exception that Nintendo and Illumination like to keep on the big screen.
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