The wild success of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is bad news, actually

So that happened: yours truly was finally dragged – not kicking and screaming, but close enough – to a movie theater this past weekend to watch The Super Mario Galaxy Movie with his kids. It was not the scathing, unusually negative reviews that had made watching it an unattractive prospect. It was not even its blatant trailer, promising the exact same thing The Super Mario Bros Movie – a mildly enjoyable but utterly forgettable film – offered back in 2023. No. It was the glaring disconnect between the Tomatometer and Popcornmeter scores over at Rotten Tomatoes: what film critics and what consumers thought of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

Those scores currently sit at 43/100 and 88/100 respectively, a considerable 45/100 difference. This disconnect might not be the biggest problem here, though.

To be clear, critics and audiences not agreeing on how good a movie is to that degree is hardly ever a good thing – it’s often indicative, in fact, of a film failing in different ways. If critics loved it but consumers hated it, chances are that it was a movie of artistic value or originality that failed to get its message across or convey its meaning clearly or keep viewers interested. If consumers loved it but critics hated it, chances are that it was a film of no artistic value or no originality to speak of or one suffering from obvious flaws – but one that its intended target group found enjoyable, or even great, despite all of that.

This does happen from time to time, obviously, as film critics and consumers do not watch movies in the same way. Their mindset is different, as are their standards, as are – most importantly – the very reasons why either of them watch any given motion picture at any given time. That disconnect, then, is not the actual problem. Perspective is. See, with films like The Super Mario Galaxy Movie a lot of consumers already know there’s a good chance it won’t really be a high-quality film… but they show up in movie theaters anyway, in droves – which is precisely what film critics would not deem justified or reasonable. Yet here we are.

For the record, yours truly did not hate The Super Mario Galaxy Movie the way some of its critics did, maybe because he walked into the movie theater with the lowest of expectations. But he did hate the unashamedly low effort that went into producing it. There is no actual story to speak of and what is barely there is so full of plot holes or illogical choices that one feels there’s no point trying to make sense of it. Characters are so paper-thin that hardly anyone cares about what they do or say or what happens to them, pace is off, dialogue is bland and inconsequential. Animation is beautiful at times, yes, but… that’s about it really.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie is, in short, not a true film: it’s a stitched-together collection of motion picture sequences that could have worked as cut scenes in any Mario game, of any sort, on any system, in the exact same way. But it’s also the most successful film of 2026 so far, even before its theatrical run ends, fast approaching the 1 billion mark in ticket sales alone. More profit will come from DVD/Blu-ray sales, even more from digital sales and rentals, even more than that from broadcasting or streaming rights in the years to come. The Super Mario Galaxy Movie may well prove to be even more lucrative than the The Super Mario Bros Movie – which, despite being no masterpiece itself, was arguably a better film in every single way.

This huge success is a problem because – given how weak The Super Mario Galaxy Movie truly is – it’s a clear message from mainstream consumers to Universal, Illumination and Nintendo: “No matter how bad a Mario film you release actually is, we will show up to watch it and it will succeed. Do not concern yourselves with things like plot or character development or flow, just keep them coming”. Which is exactly what these companies plan to do, as a third Mario movie is already scheduled for an April 12th, 2028 theatrical release.

Far be it from yours truly to suggest what anyone should or should not like, especially when it comes to art and fun. But, in the case of The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, Universal, Illumination and Nintendo didn’t even try to make a decent film at all. They just tried to exploit the love that millions of consumers around the world have for Nintendo’s characters – and the fond memories they have of Nintendo’s past video games – in order to sell a piece of shiny but sloppy, hollow, soulless entertainment.

Moviegoers in general, and Nintendo fans in particular, deserve more than this – but if they continue to reward mediocrity, then that’s all they are going to get from these companies in the future. This will not do. Not handing out any more money to Universal, then, when The Super Mario Galaxy Movie hits the home entertainment market eventually could make for an effective statement, no?