The Super Mario Bros. Movie may have taken a Bowser-style pounding from the critics, but audiences have countered that with an almost perfect score for the Nintendo game-based animated film. Although the film is still languishing around 50% from its opening wave of critic appraisals on Rotten Tomatoes, with over 1000 verified audience scored tallied, the start of a new big screen Mario franchise has done exactly what it needed to do and pleased the general public and landed a 96% approval rating.
The biggest difference between the reviews of critics and the first audiences to see the movie seems to be expectation and what people actually want to see from a movie based on a video game about a plumber who adventures his way through colorful levels to save a princess, protect a world, race a monkey and so on. From the critics’ side, many of them expected a much more involving and complex plot that the film delivers, even if they all agree that the movie is visually flawless. Audiences are rating the movie highly based the simple fact that it brings the same bright, fast-paced world of Super Mario to the big screen in exactly the same way it plays out consoles.
What it seems is that while Sega decided to take Sonic the Hedgehog into the real world and include a certain amount of grown-up peril and tone, Nintendo have kept Mario firmly in the child-friendly world of animation. In both cases, the long-standing video game stars have found their home with the people who really decide whether a movie is a success or not.
One huge difference that has appeared across the movie industry in the last couple of years is how ratings and viewership volumes are extremely volatile. Movies that are released in cinemas and get off to a bad start when it comes to reviews, doesn’t tend to make big waves at the box office, a la Black Adam or Morbius for example. But a mediocre movie released on Netflix, such as the recent Murder Mystery 2, continues to gain viewers despite both critics and audiences pummeling it with bad reviews purely because it costs nothing extra to watch.
For that reason, the early wave of almost perfect reviews from first audiences could be the booster that The Super Mario Bros. Movie can use to expand its already huge box office potential. When looking at a family movie like The Super Mario Bros. Movie, the cost of a family day out to the cinemas has to be one that is going to be worth it, and it seems like there are plenty who believe it is.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie was already expected to be the kick-starter of a huge Nintendo franchise, and that seems to have been all but confirmed by the performance of the movie in both public opinions and box office results.
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