According to GameSpot, Nintendo is building a “framework for consistent release cadence” for movies after The Super Mario Bros. Movie earned a staggering $1.36 billion globally, making it the second highest-grossing film of 2023 behind Barbie. The company confirmed The Super Mario Galaxy Movie for 2026 and a live-action Zelda movie for 2027, with Bo Bragason playing Zelda and Benjamin Evan Ainsworth as Link. Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto remains deeply involved as producer on all projects, and the first Mario Galaxy trailer will reportedly attach to Wicked: For Good later this month. The Switch 2 has also sold over 10 million units, becoming Nintendo’s fastest-selling platform ever, with projections boosted to 19 million for the fiscal year ending March 2026.
The Mario Money Train
Look, when you stumble onto a $1.36 billion gold mine, you don’t just walk away. The Super Mario Bros. Movie wasn’t just successful—it was a cultural phenomenon that reached people who’d never touched a game controller. So Nintendo’s pivot to treating movies like a core business makes complete sense. They’re not just licensing properties anymore either—they’re co-financing and staying deeply involved in production, which is smart given how badly video game adaptations have historically failed.
The Content Factory Risk
Here’s the thing though: building a “consistent release cadence” sounds an awful lot like turning into a content factory. And we’ve seen what happens when companies start chasing release schedules rather than quality. Remember how quickly the superhero movie fatigue set in? Nintendo has an incredible roster of characters, but not every franchise is Mario. I mean, does the world really need an Excitebike movie? Probably not.
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The Zelda Live-Action Gamble
The live-action Zelda movie feels particularly risky. Video game adaptations have come a long way, but translating Zelda’s magical, silent-protagonist fantasy into live-action? That’s a massive challenge. The fact that it’s filming in New Zealand this week suggests confidence, but we’ve been burned before. Remember when Netflix was supposedly doing a Zelda series that never materialized?
Bigger Than Just Movies
What’s really interesting is how this fits with Nintendo’s overall strategy. The Switch 2 is selling like crazy, and these movies essentially become billion-dollar advertisements for their gaming ecosystem. It’s a virtuous cycle—the games fuel movie interest, the movies drive game sales. But can they maintain quality across multiple franchises while hitting those 2026 and 2027 deadlines? That’s the billion-dollar question. Basically, Nintendo’s betting big that Mario was just the beginning rather than a one-time fluke.
