Nintendo’s Shigeru Miyamoto has reacted to the critical reception to The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, saying the negative opinions of the movie from critics were “truly baffling.”
As translated by Nintendo Patents Watch, Miyamoto told NDW that critics were “even harsher” on The Super Mario Galaxy Movie than they were for 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie. He laughed and said he found this to be “rather odd.”
“We stepped in from another medium and did our best to help energize the film industry. And yet the very people who are supposed to champion the film industry are the ones being so negative; it’s truly baffling,” he said.
It’s possible something was lost in translation here, as it’s definitely not the job of any professional critic to “champion” any industry. It’s normally quite the opposite. Criticism can help elevate work and help people consider alternative perspectives.
On GameSpot sister site Metacritic, The Super Mario Bros. Movie has a metascore of 46 compared to a 37 for The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. A similar difference is reflected on Rotten Tomatoes, with the 2023 movie scoring higher than the sequel. On both Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, the audience/fan scores for both movies was markedly higher than the scores from professional critics.
CinemaScore, which polls people after leaving the theater, also showed very impressive ratings for both films. The Super Mario Bros. Movie scored a mighty A rating with its sequel getting an A- from fans.
While critic reviews for both Mario animated movies didn’t land that high, the movies have proven to be enormous successes at the box office, combining to make more than $2 billion. The 2023 movie itself made $1.36 billion and was the year’s No. 2 best-selling movie, only behind Barbie ($1.4 billion). The Super Mario Galaxy Movie has made more than $750 million worldwide thus far, with some predicting it will reach $1 billion before its theatrical run is over.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie recently passed Pegasus 3, a Chinese movie that’s made 99.8% of its money from China, to become the No. 1 movie globally so far this year. It’s helped provide a much-needed jolt to the box office, which has been sluggish in recent years coming out of the pandemic.
The Super Mario Galaxy Movie was the second big success story for Hollywood so far this year, following the breakout success of Amazon’s Project Hail Mary and the strong opening for Pixar’s new, non-franchise movie Hoppers. Looking further out, 2026 will see the release of other major movies expected to draw big crowds, including The Mandalorian and Grogu, Avengers: Doomsday, Toy Story 5, and the live-action Moana from Disney, as well as Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Supergirl, and The Hunger Games: Sunrise on the Reaping. The iconic directors Steven Spielberg (Disclosure Day) and Christopher Nolan (The Odyssey) are also coming out with new movies this year.
Nintendo’s next video game movie to come is the live-action The Legend of Zelda film in May 2027. The movie recently wrapped production, and behind-the-scenes images may offer clues for where it’s headed. After that, Nintendo is expected to produce even more movies, in part because there are “only so many people” who play games.