Success of ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ has gone ‘beyond what I could have imagined,’ says Shigeru Miyamoto

The success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which was jump started by the film having the biggest opening weekend ever for an animated film at the box office has been a pleasant surprise for even the most diehard Nintendo fans and even Mario’s creator himself, Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamoto, who recently said that the success of the Super Mario Bros. Movie would pave the (Rainbow) road for more Nintendo-centric video game films in the future, spoke to the Japanese press before the film’s release in Japan (translated by VGC’s Robert Sephazon).

“I did have a level of expectations that this movie would also do well [like the Super Nintendo World theme park], but I was very surprised that it went beyond what I could have imagined when it finally came out,” Miyamoto said.

The Mario creator continued, “You need some luck to achieve this level of success for a film,” he added. “While many foreign critics have given the movie relatively low ratings, I think that also contributed to the movie’s notoriety and buzz.”

Shigeru Miyamoto at Super Nintendo World with a few friends/YouTube

Miyamoto added that the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie has added an extra level of happiness for him considering it may have changed the definition of and reversed the usually negative stigma surrounding “video game movies,” a niche which has usually not seen success nearly on the level of The Super Mario Bros. Movie in the past.

“I’d be happy if viewers could say that the definition of what a movie is has changed because of this film,” Miyamoto added. “That just shows how lucky we were.”

Miyamoto also revealed that the Japanese version of The Super Mario Bros. Movie was different from the US version, with Nintendo handling the Japanese version of the script in a different manner.

“Since we were creating this movie in both Japan and the United States, we thought we should make a Japanese version as well,” Miyamoto said.

“What I often say is that in games, we should value stories that are ‘like real stories, even though they’re not.’ They’re completely fictional, but I think they seem almost real because there’s some element of reality in them. This is true for dramas as well. When I see that the most important part, which is making it seem ‘like a real story’ is done carelessly, I feel disappointed.

“So when we decided to make this movie, we discussed creating a unique Japanese script from the beginning. Even if we were shown an English script, it would be hard to understand the subtle nuances.”

Have you been as surprised with the considerable success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie as Mario’s own creator, Shigeru Miyamoto has been? Have you seen The Super Mario Bros. Movie in theaters already? Let us know what you thought in the comments.