Deadline 2023 Box Office Report: Super Mario Bros most profitable film

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‘The Super Mario Bros Movie’ Levels All The Way Up To Win Deadline’s 2023 Most Valuable Blockbuster Tournament

Big thanks to our sources for making this profit series possible and to Deadline Co-Editor-in-Chief Mike Fleming Jr. Rather than rush these figures out at the end of the year, we take time to deep dive with those involved.

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Not only is The Super Mario Bros Movie the highest-grossing Illumination movie of all time with $1.36 billion at the global box office, but it’s also the most profitable at $559M, besting Minions‘ net of $502M in 2015. The latest film’s $100M production cost was split 50-50 between Nintendo and Universal. While the movie didn’t have a $100M promotional-partner marketing campaign to offset P&A, that would be rare for an animated film. However, there were plenty of partners to knock audiences atop the head with McDonald’s Happy Meals, Shake Shack and 7-Eleven takeovers. Universal blasted off the Super Mario Bros Movie trailer during a New York Comic-Con panel in the fall of 2022 timed with an integration on Nintendo Direct (YouTube digital press conference for the brand), along with a global digital launch. The second trailer dropped in November and was attached to the holiday season’s must-see film, Avatar: The Way of Water

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2. Barbie

Not counted here in revenues are consumer sales, toy goods weren’t contingent on Warner Bros’ greenlight (a very different situation from PAW Patrol 2 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem). Alas, per inside sources, the total impact from Mattel’s direct movie participation, movie-related toy sales and consumer products yielded more than $150M in sales last year. A comp toward $175M global P&A were 165 promo partnerships for Barbie from Crocs to Cold Stone ice cream. However, Barbie also ran a competitive awards and Oscar campaign, resulting in eight Academy Awards noms including Best Picture, with a win for the Billie Eilish and Finneas O’Connell original song “What Was I Made For?” That $200M for Television and Streaming includes the money Warner Bros paid itself to put the movie on streaming service Max. The $175M in participations includes $60M for Robbie, $40M for Gosling, as well as monies to Mattel, Gerwig, producer David Heyman and Robbie’s LuckyChap. Let’s also not forget about the 1M-plus stateside selling Barbie soundtrack, which featured a big hit from Dua Lipa in “Dance the Night”). The album won the Grammy for Best Compilation Soundtrack for Visual Media, and “What Was I Made For?” took Song of the Year and Best Song Written for Visual Media. Barbie ascended to become the highest-grossing movie in Warner Bros history with $1.44 billion, overtaking longtime champ Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 ($1.35B).

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3. Spider-man Across the Spider-Verse

With a profit of $328M, Spider-Man: Across the Universe‘s gravy is higher than the $200M profit made by the 2017 Tom Holland-Zendaya live-action Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it’s not far from the $339M net profit of the 2019 sequel Spider-Man: Far From Home.

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4. ‘Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem’

Key to greenlight here was merchandise, a line item not built into every film’s P&L. You’ll notice when we get to Barbie and The Super Mario Bros Movie it’s absent, as those movies weren’t contingent on merchandise sales. It’s also merchandise sales that enable this animated also-ran to a shocking profit point — past Oppenheimer — with a net of $204.5

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5. Oppenheimer

Net here is $201.9M. 

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