‘Super Mario Bros. Movie’ Opening Earlier This Spring

Illumination Entertainment/Universal’ movie’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie will be opening around the world on Wednesday, April 5, before Easter weekend. It had been set for Good Friday, April 7.

In what arguably could be one of the biggest openings of the spring, the animated film featuring Chris Pratt, Chris Day, Anya Taylor-Joy, Seth Rogen, Jack Black, et al., is going earlier to capitalize on spring breaks stateside and so that fans can experience it around the globe at the same time. Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, The pic will launch in more than 60 markets on its opening day.

Ten markets for Super Mario Bros. in Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Eastern Europe are opening on a variety of dates in April and May including Japan, where it will open on April 28 timed to the Golden Week holidays.

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Should this film open big it will be a huge win for Nintendo on the big screen. The last Super Mario Bros movie in 1993 — a live-action adaptation of the hit videogame franchise released by Buena Vista and starring the late Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi — was expected to be a summer tentpole back then, but tanked off a mid-$40M production cost with a global gross near $39M.

This Super Mario Bros animated movie is produced by Illumination founder and CEO Chris Meledandri and by Shigeru Miyamoto for Nintendo, and was co-financed by Universal Pictures and Nintendo.