Anya Taylor-Joy’s “The Super Mario Bros. Movie” Towers Over Global Box Office Charts with $366 Million in Ticket Sales

Everything’s peachy for Anya Taylor-Joy

The Super Mario Bros. Movie, starring the 26-year-old Argentine American Golden Globe-winning actress, towered over box office charts with $377 million in global ticket sales, taking the title for the biggest worldwide debut of the year from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania ($225.3 million).

Anya Taylor-Joy, Princess Peach, Super Mario Bros MovieThe animated film — a collaboration between Illumination, Nintendo and Universal — crushed already-high expectations, igniting to $173 million internationally and $204 million in its first five days at the domestic box office.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie opened in 70 overseas territories, including Mexico ($27.4 million), the U.K. and Ireland ($19.6 million), Germany ($14 million), China ($12 million), France ($10.4 million), Spain ($8.6 million) and Australia ($8.3 million).

With those ticket sales, The Super Mario Bros. Movie landed several overseas records, including the best international debut of the year and second-biggest animated opening of all time (behind Frozen 2 with $228.2 million). It also scored the biggest animated opening in 11 individual markets, as well as the best start for a video game adaptation in 42 individual markets.

“It’s a phenomenal number all around,” says Veronika Kwan Vandenberg, president of distribution for Universal Pictures International. “The film is based on incredible IP, which is beloved by people of different generations– young and old. This is great news for the industry.”

In addition to brand recognition and nostalgia for the popular video game, the film benefitted from positive word-of-mouth, premium theatrical formats and a months-long lack of movies targeted at family audiences.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie particularly delivered in Imax, bringing in $5 million overseas and $21.6 million globally. Those ticket sales rank as the highest animated debut ever for the company in 22 markets, including Ireland and the UK, Germany, Sweden and Netherlands.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie features the voices of Chris Pratt as Mario, Charlie Day as Luigi, Anya Taylor-Joy as Princess Peach and Jack Black as Bowser.

Directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, the story follows the mustachioed plumber and friends as they prepare to stop the all-powerful King Koopa from world domination.

Anya Taylor-Joy & “Super Mario Bros. Movie” Cast Mates Join Jimmy Fallon & The Roots to Perform Game’s Original Theme

It’s theme on for Anya Taylor-Joy

In celebration of MAR10 Day (March 10), the 26-year-old Argentine American Golden Globe-winning actress joined her Super Mario Bros. Movie, Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon and The Roots to one-up the game franchise’s original theme song.

Anya Taylor-JoyTaylor-Joy, who portrays Princess Peach, Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Fred Armisen, Keegan-Michael Key and Charlie Day joined Fallon and his in-house band for a special Tonight Show video, singing a choral rendition of the instantly recognizable video game’s theme song.

The actors make up the main voice cast of the upcoming animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, which will arrive in theaters April 5.

Anya Taylor-Joy, Princess Peach, Super Mario Bros MovieIn the video, Fallon and the actors take turns taking center stage as Questlove and other members of The Roots add layers of suave harmony. All the while, the singers are edited into the pixelated landscape of the Mario universe, where they pop in and out of green pipes and send shells flying at one another.

Then, Nintendo legend and Mario game creator Shigeru Miyamoto makes an appearance, and even has a little solo at the very end of the video.

Fans in the comments absolutely loved the creative take on the Mario music.

“Broooo… This is so awesome!” wrote one. “Just to see the voice cast of The Super Mario Bros Movie and even seeing Miyamoto singing [an a cappella] cover of the iconic Super Mario tracks is just phenomenal to watch.”

“The ending was a masterpiece in every way,” added another.

Anya Taylor-Joy Among Cast for Illumination’s ‘Super Mario Bros.’ Animated Film

Anya Taylor-Joy is preparing for her next royal excursion…

Illumination and Nintendo have announced the powerhouse voice cast for their upcoming Super Mario Bros. animated film, which includes the 25-year-old Argentine American actress.

Anya Taylor-Joy

Taylor-Joy, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance in Queen’s Gambit, will star as Princess Peach in the film, which will hit cinemas on December 21, 2022.

Playing the fraternal, mushroom digesting plumbers and squashers of turtles are Chris Pratt as Mario and Charlie Day as Luigi.

Playing bad guy Bowser is Jack BlackKeegan-Michael Key as Toad, Seth Rogen as Donkey Kong, Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Kevin Michael Richardson as Kamek, and stand-up comedian Sebastian Maniscalco as Spike.

“Each voice actor was cast for their ability to capture the unique spirit of their character,” reads the release.

The co-financed feature between Universal and Nintendo will be directed by Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, who previously collaborated on the animated series Teen Titans Go! and the film Teen Titans Go! To the Movies.

The film’s screenplay will be written by Matthew Fogel, whose credits include The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part and the upcoming Illumination feature Minions: The Rise of Gru.

Future offshore release dates will be announced.

“Mario and Luigi are two of the most beloved heroes in all of popular culture, and we are honored to have the unique opportunity to work so closely with Shigeru Miyamoto and the widely imaginative team at Nintendo to bring these characters to life in an animated movie, unlike any film Illumination has made to date,” said Chris Meledandri who is also an outside director of Nintendo.

“We are collaborating with Chris and his experienced team to not just create a character licensed film, but a new piece of entertainment which brings Super Mario Bros. to life on the screen, and allows everyone to enjoy whether or not they know about the game. The production so far is constructive and going very well, and both parties are learning a lot from each other. We humbly ask that fans wait just a little longer for the premiere, and we hope they look forward to seeing the unique characters from Super Mario Bros. on the big screen,” said Miyamoto.

Super Mario Bros. is a huge franchise play for Universal and Illumination. Already, there’s a Super Mario Bros. land open at the Universal Japan theme park with others under construction at Universal Hollywood and Universal Orlando.

The movie has been a long awaited revival for fans. There was a live action movie in 1993 starring Bob Hoskins as Mario and John Leguizamo as Luigi and Dennis Hopper as baddie King Koopa. There was also in the late 1980s The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! animated series which starred Captain Lou Albano as the voice of Mario and Danny Wells as the voice of Luigi.

Mario Brothers was designed by Shigeru Miyamoto and Gunpei Yokoi, Nintendo’s chief engineer in 1983. Super Mario Bros. the subseries, was launched in 1985. It is the best-selling video game franchise of all time, with more than 758.06 million copies of games sold, including 388.92 million for the Super Mario games alone.